


Colours I'd Never Even Known

by KingRiles



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, It's Probably 2007, Lapis PoV, Let's Play Guess the AU!, Short Slowburn, sophomores
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-18 16:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14856398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingRiles/pseuds/KingRiles
Summary: Lapis, an adolescent struggling to see the colour in the mundane world around her, befriends new student outcast Peridot and it changes her life in ways she had never expected, especially not out of this talkative little blonde girl. But soon, one of them must learn to draw on the strengths the other showed them to cope with a tragedy.





	1. Chapter 1

Beads of moisture condensed on Lapis’ arms as she made haste through the forest, damp bare feet throwing up clumps of mulch and soil in their wake. The morning was creeping lethargically in through the leaf-infested treetops, milky grey light spearing through the trees and mottling the forest floor.

The cove at the bend in the creek had been especially cool that early morning, its chill ghosting beneath Lapis’ freckled skin and making the humid morning just a little more bearable. Per the usual, she had snuck out of the house before the sun had climbed into the sky to swim in the cool cove waters north of her country home. It had become a traditional that Lapis had learned to depend on as avidly as a lifeline, a place of placidity that she fostered and protected with the might of something much larger and stronger than her.

Lapis began to slow when the familiar countryside home appeared over the crest of a grassy hill, easing her breathing as she crossed the field. She stopped by the hose faucet to rinse the grime and green from the soles of her feet as to avoid suspicion of her whereabouts, slipping soundlessly into the quiet house and into the kitchen, grabbing the nearest worn rag she saw to wipe the leftover dampness from her skin and clothes.

A wrinkled note sat daintily beside the island counter, and a brief read revealed to Lapis that her mother had left early for work and encouraged her to eat something before the bus came to pick her up in. . . Lapis blinked, turning to the old clock on the wall, realizing she had exactly one minute until the bus would pull up the careworn road.

“Figures,” she muttered to herself, scrambling to rid herself of any watery evidence and begrudgingly threw a pair of tennis shoes over her bare feet; there was no time to even try to find a sock that wasn’t a knot of exhausted threads by now. Sourly, she mentally noted that she’d have to deal with her spandex chafing for the rest of the day since she didn’t have any time to change out.

Lapis hurried out the door, racing the noisy growling of bus tires sliding along the byway as she bolted up the hill and towards her stop.

Boarding the bus was mundane enough, consisting of her drudging between bustling rows of primary and intermediate students as she made haste to her seat in the very back. The older kids had given up trying to coerce Lapis from the spot typically designated for the juniors and seniors, taking it with a grain of salt as she shrugged her bookbag off and dropped absently into the seat.

As the bus left the stop and made its way back onto the main roads to enter the city, Lapis lamented for her solitary cove in the woods. There was no outside interference there to combat the workings of her inner mind; not that she seemed to be doing much thinking lately, anyways. Since leaving _her_ , she’d been. . . less of herself. There was a fundamental part of her missing, she felt, one that she thought she might as well give up on trying to find again. Dramatic, sure, but she gave herself a pardon; she’d seen hell from every angle and didn’t intend to delve back into it anytime soon.

A distant mother left Lapis more time to herself than she knew how to deal with when left to her own devices. She figured that was when spending time in the water had become more therapeutic than athletic, a silent escape from a world otherwise roaring too loudly for Lapis to even breathe. It was a steady, _living_ constant that she knew she could depend on.

And that, she did.

She couldn’t wait until the bus pulled back up her road and she could dive back into its icy depths at three.

Lapis fell into the aimless routine of being jostled off the bus and making way to her locker in the sophomore hall, retrieving her books without as much as a second glance and slumping into class before the bell tolled. She practically snoozed through her first few classes, and her fourth hour-- literature-- fared no better. Mrs. Sardonyx entered the room with her customary theatrical salutations, earning a response from her students that couldn’t even seem mild in comparison to her pageantry.

Lapis was practically dozing halfway through the teacher’s lecture when the ringer at the door chimed, startling her awake and instinctively snatching her half-lidded attention.

Sneaking in the door decorated in placards for the school’s One-Act performance schedule and various cheesy quotations from old English writers (Lapis didn’t know what she’d expected, knowing that Mrs. Sardonyx was also the drama teacher) was a tiny girl with wireframe glasses _far_ too large for her now flushing face. She had wild blonde hair swept up into an overgrown pixie, and a faded green t-shirt emblazoned with a dark NASA logo.

The garish peal of the bell was more than enough to gain Mrs. Sardonyx’s attention, as well, large eyes reaching over to regard their newcomer. Her enthusiastic smile deepened as she turned away from the blackboard, throwing her chalk dismissively into the tray as she welcomed the student in.

“Why hello there, darling! You must be Peridot,” Mrs. Sardonyx chirped, reaching out for Peridot’s hand and giving it a vivacious shake. The small girl’s entire body jolted at the teacher’s vigour, a crooked, nervous half-smile forming on her lips as she nervily retracted her hand. The teacher turned outwards then to address the class, an arm looped warmly around the newcomer’s shoulders. “Students, this is Peridot. She’ll be attending literature with us for the remainder of the year; she’s just transferred down from Keystone! Isn’t that exciting?”

The class was mostly unresponsive, save for a few students who gave shrugs and one who blandly went, “sure.” Lapis’ eyes were stuck on the new student, not quite interested but taking in whatever she thought she needed to know about her.

She was small, for starters, impressively so. They might still be in their maturing years, but she had reason to believe there was little hope for Peridot escaping her vertically challenged stature. She was standing stiffly, eyeing the classroom with a lofty wariness, like she was trying to scope out the desk she’d be stuck in until the end of the school year. Lapis pinched her lips. She knew there were no available desks, and Mrs. Sardonyx seemed to catch onto that fact a second later.

“Well,” Mrs. Sardonyx laughed, motioning for Peridot to take her own desk as she brushed down her cardigan. “You’ll just have to take _my_ desk for today’s lesson, love. I’ll see to it that an extra desk is brought in before this time tomorrow! Now, back to our lecture.” She tapped her lips thoughtfully before brightening with revelation. “Ah, yes! The ethics of graphic memoirs! You see, students, graphic novels work to demonstrate the true tales of human experiences, exploring the boundaries of fact and fiction. .”

As Mrs. Sardonyx carried back into her self-sustaining lecture, Lapis let herself become immersed with the small doodles flecked into the margins of her notepad. She spared no more thoughts for the role of contemporary culture memorabilia, instead finding a sullen interest to the one different thing in the room: Peridot.

New students joined the ranks of Delmarva all the time, so she wasn’t sure what kept drawing her eyes back to the fidgeting blonde at the front of the classroom. Maybe it was due to the fact that she looked so out _of_ place up front, toying with the fabric of her shirt and fiddling with her pencil bag.

It was different than what Lapis was used to. It was a contrast from the prosaic period she was used to, where Mrs. Sardonyx’s farcical voice tuned out and she was left to thoughtless distraction until the next bell rang. The new presence seemed to ground Lapis, keeping her mind in check as she stared through her eyelashes at this stranger.

Lapis didn’t know what to make of Peridot.

After a few minutes, Peridot seemed to sink into the lesson, green eyes attentively trained onto Mrs. Sardonyx as she jabbered away about how certain contextual distinctions question collective truths in graphic mediums. Her nerves seemed all but dissipated. Lapis felt her lips pull into a light scowl. How could she already be adjusted? She wasn’t even in a desk of her own.

She wasn’t sure why she was bitter. Maybe it was because Peridot was going to sink into the same silent stupor that had encompassed the rest of the classroom, fogging the minds of Mrs. Sardonyx’s listeners and sleepers alike, rendering them… almost lifeless.

Maybe it was because she was envious of her ability to adapt, if that was even the right word to use.

For the rest of the hour Lapis kept herself absentmindedly occupied, only casting fleeting glances up towards Peridot. Each time she had a different expression on her face, ranging from fascination to tedium.

It left Lapis reflecting for a reason she couldn’t pinpoint, thinking about the wild-haired girl as the bell sounded and the class collected their bags and headed out for their lunch hour.

Lapis had only just exited the classroom when she heard the resounding _thumps_ of textbooks hitting the floor, and turned around just in time to see Peridot hesitantly getting down on her knees to pick up the books that had fallen out of her bag. Mrs. Sardonyx reached her before anyone else, helping Peridot scrape together her things and giving the student a comforting pat on the back. “It happens to the best of us, my dear! Even me! A-ha!”

Peridot mumbled something that Lapis didn’t catch as she tried to feign nonchalance, pretending to be reading one of Mrs. Sardonyx’s door pamphlets. “Um, thanks,” came a nasally, strung voice, one that Lapis could only assume belonged to Peridot. The voice was. . . fitting. She supposed she hadn’t expected anything saccharine when she registered the _geek_ vibe that Peridot essentially radiated.

Still. . . it was _different_.

Lapis decided that it was time to take her leave with the intent of claiming her remote spot in the school courtyard to read. She stopped by her locker first to deposit her book, spending a few moments idling as she stared vacantly at the cracked mirror she kept plastered to its hinge. She saw herself for the first time in the fragmented reflection, noting with a careless grimace the dark shadows pooling beneath her eyes. Whatever.

She carried on through the now emptied halls, exiting the arts building and carrying through the campus. Technically, she wasn’t allowed to leave the mess halls during lunch; only juniors and seniors were given that luxury, but she had never been caught before, and she didn’t intend to be.

It had turned out to be a clear day despite the morning’s clamminess. Dusty blue skies stretched endlessly overhead, fluffy tufts of white cloud drifting in its depth. By all means, it was a pacifying sight, guaranteeing a sunny swim later in the day. Lapis couldn’t help the restful smile that experimented with her lips as she cut down the isolated corner that led to her spot: a bench by a hedge that sat in the shadow of a tree near the edge of the high school campus.

When she turned the last corner, she stopped, accosting the scene before her with narrowed eyes. Sitting on her bench was Peridot, passively flipping through a journal of sorts, half of a sandwich left untouched on a napkin set beside her on the slats.

Lapis’ throat dried, her tongue rotating helplessly in her mouth as Peridot glanced up at her, startled. The silence that stretched between them was pregnant with a dominating tension. Said tension only maximized when Lapis spoke cuttingly. “You’re on my bench.”

Peridot blinked, looking at the bench she was parked on and then back at Lapis. “But it says here on the plaque it’s dedicated in memory of Lauren Zuke?”

Lapis’ frown augmented. “But it’s still my bench. It’s been mine since the seventh grade. So could you get off of it, or something?”

Peridot looked hesitant to comply, shifting on the spot as she quietly clipped the journal shut. “We can share it? I can take this side, and you can take that side!” She pointed out, helpfully gesturing to the empty side of the seat. “See? There’s plenty of space here!”

Frustration billowed in the pit of Lapis’ stomach as Peridot scrambled for a compromise that Lapis _knew_ was in vain. Whatever weird brand of curiosity she’d held for the girl was very quickly mutating into something distasteful the longer this debate went on.

“I don’t want to share it,” Lapis stiffly objected. “I’ve had it to myself for three years.” She began to march closer to the bench, ready to take it by force if she had to. “Now just-- _move_.”

“What-- _hey!_ ” Peridot yiped as Lapis grabbed Peridot’s bag and dropped it onto the floor, accidentally causing its contents to spill out onto the concrete all over again. Lapis remained impassive as Peridot rushed off the bench to bring her belongings back together, taking the seat for herself when the coast was clear. Peridot pounced onto her feet with a slight stumble, a helpless lour of disbelief on her face. “Why did you do that?”

“You wouldn’t get off. I improvised,” Lapis supplied succinctly, bringing her legs up onto the bench as she dug her book out of her bag, eyes never leaving Peridot. Colour had rushed indignantly into the short girl’s face, eyes rheumy behind her glasses as she huffed and threw her bag over her shoulder. “Fine!” She sniffed. “I’ll just go sit somewhere _else_.”

_“_ **_Who’s down there?_  **

Both students stood ramrod straight as an older voice called down from up the alley, the telltale signs of heavy footsteps announcing the  arrival of who Lapis hoped was _not_ a teacher. She hissed through her teeth as she scrambled off the bench, trying to squeeze behind the hedge to avoid being caught red-handed for skipping lunch.

She moved a heartbeat too late, because she froze on the spot behind Peridot as Mrs. Agate stomped into the opening, her white high-heeled jackboots glinting dangerously in the sunlight. “What are you two doing out here?” She clipped coldly, regarding the girls with undisguised antipathy. “You two _sophomores_ had _better_ have a reasonable excuse for skipping your mandatory lunch hour at the mess hall,” Mrs. Agate snapped. “Out with it!”

“I-- _uhh--_ _erm_ \--” Peridot tried to begin, losing her train of thought halfway through and clamping her lips together. Lapis was equally ineloquent, heart pounding too viciously in her throat. Mrs. Agate’s severity only sharpened when neither came forward with a justifiable pardon, austere eyes hardening as she straightened up. “Well, if neither of you have a legitimate alibi, then I’ll escort you back to the mess hall myself and make sure that the staff there account for your presence there from here on out.”

 _What?!_ Lapis gaped, her own incredulity outweighing her anger for a minute. Mrs. Agate couldn’t do that, she tried to rationalize, but one look at the teacher’s stern face and Lapis knew that she definitely could. With a breathy growl that lacked any cognizance, Lapis shouldered her bag back on and trudged past Peridot. She sent the short blonde an accusatory glare as she stopped in front of Mrs. Agate, eyes trained onto her shoes as she waited to be walked to the cafeteria building. She’d just lost her _one_ personal safe-spot in the whole campus.

It was safe to say that Lapis and Peridot sat on opposite ends of the cafeteria when they got there.

 

* * *

 

Lapis was all too relieved to collapse into her seat on the bus, half-expecting to see Peridot claiming _that,_ too. After the lunch hour she’d learned she shared another class with the new student, art, which was just adding insult to injury in Lapis’ eyes. Of course, the _only_ available seat had been the one next to her, after Sadie Miller had moved away two months ago. Lapis had kept her eyes directed stubbornly to the front of the classroom, watching their teacher Vidalia speak about colour theory and listening for once just to keep herself occupied and _not_ looking at Peridot.

The bus engine groused, the telltale sign of it beginning to take off, but not before there was a frantic tapping on the bus doors. Their driver stopped, took a glance down the stairs at some late bus rider Lapis couldn’t see, and swung open the door with a flat grimace. “Get here on time next time, kid, would ya?” Mr. DeMayo grouched, jabbing his thumb to the back rows of seats. “High schoolers get the back.”

Figuring it was no one important Lapis turned her eyes outward, lifting her legs up to rest her chin on her knees. The bus started up again, this time successfully launching onto the street as the newcomer plopped down right in front of Lapis. She took a stray glance out of sheer curiosity and felt her stomach cave in on itself when she recognized the crazy hair sticking up from the back of the seat.

“Seriously,” she muttered only to herself, diffidently and effectively giving Peridot a cold shoulder as she slapped her forehead against her knees, taking much comfort in the fact that her dyed hair was hiding her vexation from the rest of the world. Not that she’d have cared much if they saw it, anyhow.

Despite how quietly Lapis had murmured, Peridot still took note, giving her classmate a look over her shoulder. Her eyes widened with realization at who she’d sat in front of, cheeks blazing with colour as the blonde adamantly spun around to give the back of the seat in front of her her utmost attention.

The bus ride was silent between the two, where the loudest thing between them was the occasional shift of fabric or the squeak of the old metal supporting their bench cushions.

Lapis’ stop couldn’t come soon enough, as it was one of the last drop-offs on the route. As soon as she felt the driver take the turnoff she clutched her bag close to her chest, slipping her legs down and bouncing her right foot in the hopes of waking it up from being inactive for so long.

The bus cruised to a stop, doors crawling open to let Lapis stumble out wordlessly.

To her surprise, the sound of another pair of shoes crunching the gravel and soil sounded behind her. She turned, her inquisitiveness turning to aggravation when, _again,_ Peridot was fidgeting behind her, toeing the soil and avoiding all eye contact.

“What, are you going to try to take my _house_ , too?” Lapis scoffed, turning on the smaller girl as the bus drove away. “Are you following me?”

Peridot startled, brows knitting together behind her huge glasses as she stared defensively up at Lapis. “What? No, no, I-- I live _there_. See?” A small hand gestured to Lapis’ neighboring home that had recently been sold to a new family that had moved in. Lapis hadn’t known the former neighbors, so she’d seen no reason to invest any kind of interest in the new ones. The universe just seemed to want to make Lapis’ day as inopportune as possible, it looked like.

“Oh,” was Lapis’ simple response. So she’d be seeing more of Peridot than in their two shared classes. Wonderful. She started down the hill towards her house, keeping her eyes forward. She wouldn’t give Peridot the satisfaction of seeing her look back.

Turns out, she didn’t have much of a choice in not seeing Peridot for the rest of the day. The racket of feet running (it sounded a little unbalanced) gave Lapis cause to want to see what she was up to, only solidifying when she heard a yelp and the sound of someone hitting the ground.

“I’m okay!” Peridot sputtered, checking her glasses for cracks as she uneasily scrambled back up to her feet. She had some fresh scrapes on her palms, but otherwise looked fine. Lapis regarded her for only a heartbeat with heavily lidded eyes before turning back to enter her house.

“ _Wait!--_ ”

Lapis had half the nerve to slam her forehead against the wooden paneling of her door. “Oh my god, _what?_ ” She barked, fists balled so tight her tanned skin was blanching white. “What do you _want?_ ”

Peridot, not having been expecting such a forceful reaction, retracted a step or two, hands held up peaceably as she cleared her throat. “It’s clear to me that we may have gotten off on the wrong foot here. I’d like to, _ehm_ , apologize. For. . making you lose your bench.”

She was. . . _apologizing_. Lapis could feel her lip curling beyond her control. She knew that apologies meant nothing, especially if what had caused them had already transpired and there was no way to redeem it. So she couldn’t and wouldn’t just give Peridot this free pass because she said _sorry_.

“It’s just-- it was my first day, _you know?_ ” Oh stars, Peridot was continuing to speak. “I wasn’t sure where to go. I only sat there because I wasn’t sure _where_ the cafeteria was and no one was there at the time to give me the hint that it was someone _else’s_ spot and--”

“You don’t have to keep talking, _you know_ ,” Lapis monotoned, taking minimal gratification at the intervention. She felt for her keys in her pockets, drawing them out and inserting them into the keyhole.  “I’m going inside now,” she grunted, hustling the lock and shoving the door in as fast as she could without seeming desperate for escape.

“I like your hair!”

Lapis stopped halfway through the door, features scrunching as she stared ahead, registering Peridot’s words. “What?” She quietly questioned, turning to fix Peridot with a distrustful glower.

Peridot was standing awkwardly, right hand wrapped around her left elbow and giving it a sheepish rubbing. “I like your hair,” she echoed, the delicate ghost of a hopeful smile on her face. “I-- _uh--_ was going to tell you after Mrs. Sardonyx’s class, but, you left before I could. Do you dye it yourself?”

Lapis felt herself lean into the doorframe, the frame edging into her back as she crossed her arms feebly over her chest. What was Peridot getting at? What was her scheme here? She wasn’t just about to _forget_ what she’d done _._ Even if Peridot was willing to let the event slide, Lapis certainly wasn’t, and she wanted to make that point very clear with body language alone.

“Yes,” she said shortly, taking the last step into her house and closing the door in Peridot’s face. She hadn’t seen her last expression before clicking the knob shut, leaning against the paneling with relief to be _away._

Her mother wasn’t home yet it seemed, which didn’t bother Lapis in the slightest. However, the lack of distraction left room for Lapis’ mind to disengage, thrusting her into autopilot as she took off her tennis shoes and threw them into their hangar by the door.

Again, thoughts of Peridot invaded Lapis’ mind against her will. Stars, she didn’t know _why_ she kept popping back up in her mind! She wanted to be able to hate Peridot for what she did.

So she wasn’t all too sure why she’d all but sprinted up to her room and peered through the blinds to watch Peridot retreat back to her own home.

She was shuffling down the path, scuffing the earth every once in a while before seeming to straighten up, twisting around like she’d heard someone. Lapis felt her heartbeat stifle, flicking the blinds shut, believing her prying had been noticed. But a quick peek later revealed that a young boy had rushed up to Peridot, excitedly wrapping her in a hug as the girl squabbled. So Peridot had a brother? They didn’t look anything alike.

They shared a conversation that Lapis couldn’t hear, being left only to assume the theme as Peridot gestured mildly to Lapis’ house. The boy with her glanced up to Lapis’ bedroom window, leaving Lapis unsure if he’d spotted her spying. It was only when the two vanished between the brush that clustered the space between their neighboring homes that Lapis left the window. Her knuckles were pressed up against her mouth, a thoughtful look to her face despite how _little_ she wanted to be able to think about Peridot.

She just _didn’t know_ what to make of her. Not yet.

Lapis exhaled slowly, reaching for the hem of her shirt to rip it off, replacing it with the blue halter top she wore swimming. She only remembered she’d been wearing her spandex shorts beneath her jeans when she shed them. She snagged a granola bar and a juice box from the pantry before she left the house for the creek, chewing on the prior as she crossed the countryside and entered the woods.

The familiar cacophony of a natural afternoon forest was enough to ease the edges of Lapis’ mind, morphing her annoyance into tolerance, her concerns into issues that she put into the back of her mind for another time. She let the innate tranquility of the woods leak into her conscience, smoothing out the wrinkles of the day as she passed the swinging rope that dangled over the north side of her pool. It was a frayed, old thing, but Lapis had used it once or twice and trusted its functionality enough. Lapis hardly strayed to the other side of the creek where the vegetation got headier and the trees taller; she had all she needed right here.

Light whispered welcomingly over the surface of the hollowed cove as Lapis stepped contentedly in, wading in until she was waist-high and just _settling_. Her nails drew over her skin as if it were as tearable as tissue paper, scrubbing away the mental dirt of the day as she let herself sink lower until she was a head and a set of shoulders hovering above the water.

Today had been so _trying_. Maybe it would just be easier if she muted the world for a bit, she decided, ducking her head beneath and letting herself become immersed by the gentle waters. She was thoughtless for a few moments, the pressurized sounds of water sighing in her ears letting her drone out the rest of the world, if only for as long as she could hold her breath.

Lapis opened her eyes in the clean, greenish waters just in time to witness a shimmering shadow pass overhead. She was so startled that she parted her lips to gasp, earning instead a mouthful of water that sent her into a coughing fit. She re-emerged, spattering and coughing, frantically wiping the wet fringe from her eyes as she tried to see what had jumped over the creek.

There was nothing she saw immediately, but, a few yards ahead of her, the rope dangling over the creek was swinging to-and-fro. Like someone had just used it.

Lapis felt her jaw tick. No one had ever come this deep out into the woods. At least, not while she was here.

Silently, Lapis waded to the side of the pool. She didn’t know which way the shadow had been going, but she hadn’t _seen_ anybody on the other side of the creek when she’d looked over. That thought seemed even scarier, because that meant that someone could have been _following_ her. Despite the mildness of the water, a heavy chill set over Lapis, claiming first her stomach and then her chest.

It couldn’t be Jasper, could it? No, she had left months ago. But then who could it be?

Lapis heaved herself up onto the shore, dragging her legs up to her chest before standing, using the oversized bracken that crowded the cove as cover as she tried to spot someone, _anyone_ moving through the undergrowth deeper into the woods.

Her heart raced at a mile a minute as she crawled further up the embankment upon spotting nothing, determined to at least know _who_ or _what_ she was at odds with.

And when she did, she didn’t even _try_ to stifle the groan that began in her chest and made its way up her throat and out of her mouth.

Peridot was sitting a fair distance away, resting upon a mossy log decorated in toadstools, the same journal from earlier nestled between her knees as she dug around for something in her backpack. She didn’t seem to know that Lapis was there, for which the blue-haired onlooker was at least remotely thankful for.

Lapis mindfully lowered into a crouch, fingers grazing the leaf mold as she just watched. Peridot didn’t seem like the type to like the outdoors but it looked as if Lapis should rethink or even forego the geeky archetype that the other girl suggested. What was she doing out here, even?

A caustic thought struck her, bitterly making her believe that she was here to take _this_ place away from her too. Lapis knew better than to assume that, though. It was a forest, after all; even if she liked to think it hers in the general absence of other people. The most living thing she would see out here was a squirrel or a bird, sometimes a vole down by the water’s edge if she was quiet enough. But never people.

She must have spent a few minutes just scrutinizing Peridot through the ferns, under the safe pretense that she was unseen and unheard. All alone, Peridot seemed more comfortable in her skin, standing a bit taller even as she hunched over into her journal, scribbling something furiously and cackling to herself whenever she finished.

Something made her so different and it infuriated Lapis. She was used to such a monotonous world, tinted in a grey pall that only sank deeper with each passing sun. She was allowed to exist and not much else.

So what made Peridot think she could be bold enough to even think of implementing a striking colour into this picture? Bold enough to be dare to be _different_ for her?

Lapis blinked at herself. Where had _that_ thought come from? And wasn’t colour supposed to be a good thing? She remembered Vidalia speaking earlier about colour harmony, about how if an image is visually boring, the viewer can’t and won’t be engaged, and its design will be forgotten. ( _. . She didn’t want to be forgotten._ )

Lapis must have gotten tired of crouching, because she only noticed she’d sunken into a sitting position when Peridot jolted at a raven’s cry, staring with wide eyes up at the sky. She said something that Lapis couldn’t understand, tucking her journal back into her bag and jumping off the log, stumbling only slightly as she hit the uneven earth.

With all her stumbling, she must have something wrong with her feet, Lapis thought to herself as Peridot began to hike it deeper into the forest until she was out of sight behind a thick grove of old, broad-trunked oak trees.

Lapis sat in the ferns for a bit longer, too caught up in her own muddled web of thoughts to consider going back into the creek. At least she wiped her mind, digging the heels of her palms into her eyes to wash the undesirable sentiments away. She’d had enough time in the water for today.

She pried her limbs apart and stood silently, hovering at the edge of the water before simply walking through it to reach the other side and heading back in the direction of home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to release chapters every two days, as I already have all chapters mocked up in Google Docs! Can any of you guess what film I'm basing this AU off of?


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning a languid fog had settled over the countryside. The trees were veiled by mist, tendrils of white twining sleepily between nooks and boughs. It gave the rural backroads an almost hostile ambiance, but to Lapis it was almost placating. She hadn’t gone swimming that morning, knowing that she might lose her way in the woods in such a dense bog, and had on warm, cottony clothes to combat against the dawn’s idle frigidity.

She was playing with a loose thread on the end of her long grey sleeve when the clatter of a well-aged door slamming shut resounded, and instinctively she pivoted around to see Peridot and the boy from before pacing up the hill towards her at the bus stop. Lapis’ nostrils flared as she tore her gaze away, pressing her fingers through her thick hair to fake indifference.

She’d had a strange dream. The only reason it stuck so vividly to the back of her mind was that she _hardly_ dreamed. It was a leisure she had accepted to be as good as gone, having been a victim of dark, dreamless sleeps for as long as she could recall. So to dream on a seemingly normal day about some _random_ girl she had only just _met_ and gained a rather shoddy first impression of. . .

It was more than a little off-putting. She didn’t know what to do about it. She didn’t have anyone she could turn to to talk about stuff like this. Even her own mother would dismiss her, not that Lapis really minded anymore. She’d adapted to self-reliance a while ago. Still, trying to decipher the dream alone was a little more than confusing. She remembered marbled light on the forest floor, the sensation of water against her skin, wind whistling through trees and-- glimpses of _really_ green eyes and _really_ wild blonde hair.

_Ugh. **Why.** _

Tension built like a brick wall in her chest as Peridot and her brother (Lapis assumed so) ascended the rise and stopped just a few feet behind her, whispering tersely to themselves. Were they talking about her? Lapis’ eyes narrowed fractionally, staring sharply into the old barbed wire fence that lined the opposite side of the road.

“Hi, Lapis!” The greeting could have only come from the boy with Peridot, followed by the chawing of gravel as the boy padded up beside her. A closer look revealed to Lapis that he was about Peridot’s height, but with a stockier, thicker build. He couldn’t have been any older than an eighth grader. He had curly black hair and dark eyes that seemed to glitter with excitement as he beamed up at the older girl.

“Hey,” Lapis said plainly, oddly at ease with this friendly boy. She risked a glance over his head to Peridot, who stood just two paces behind him, holding something behind her back. She looked confident, despite how she lingered back.

“I’m Steven!” The boy chirped, regaining Lapis’ attention as he looked back at Peridot with a beaming grin. “Peridot’s my foster sister! Or-- I’m her foster brother? I don’t know, it gets kind of confusing. Peridot told me _all_ about you!”

“ _Wh--_ you weren’t supposed to tell her that!” Peridot yelped, rushing forward and cupping a pale hand over Steven’s mouth, muffling his laugh as he took a step back, prying Peridot’s fingers from his lips. “It’s okay! Peridot made you a card, Lapis!”

“A card?” Lapis mirrored, eyes lowering to see Peridot clutching onto a handmade piece of cardstock folded in half. Peridot stood a little taller as she marched over and held the card up for Lapis to take, which the girl did with testy acceptance.

On the front cover there seemed to be a crayon illustration of the countryside with two squares that must have been their houses. In between them, there was a tiny depiction of Peridot and. . was that _her?_ There was deeply-coloured skin and disheveled hair scribbled in with brown and blue respectively, but-- why were they holding hands? And why were there flowers all around them?

Hesitantly, Lapis pried open the card and read its the message inside aloud. “ _Sorry for causing you to lose your lunch spot. For what it’s worth, it was comfy and I see why you might have enjoyed it, for both the aesthetic and quiet.”_ Lapis squinted. “ _Best, Peridot_.” She paused, studying a small doodle pressed in beside the name. “You drew an alien?”

“Yeah!” Peridot trilled, all too happy to explain herself. “Steven did the outside, and _I_ did the insides!” She was actually _beaming_ , looking so utterly pleased with herself as Lapis checked the back for any more doodles or words. Thankfully, there were none.

Well. At least Peridot made a conscious effort to rectify the bench thing.

“Thanks,” Lapis deadpanned, flipping the card shut and tucking it under her arm. “For the card.”

“You’re welcome!” Peridot chorused, nodding affirmatively at Steven. The boy shot her a pair of fingerguns and a cheeky wink, beginning to walk back towards their house. “Nice to meet you, Lapis! And see you later, Peridot! Lemme know how the second day goes!”

“Can do,” Peridot called back, looking and sounding a lot less confident now that it was only just Lapis and Peridot left. Lapis, however, was watching Steven hike it back down the trail. “Doesn’t he go to school?”

Peridot peeked up at Lapis, obviously surprised to be questioned, let alone spoken to. “Steven? He’s homeschooled,” she clarified, taking a quick look back at her house. “He never quite got the concept of public _or_ private school wrapped around his head. He’s perfectly content, though.”

Lapis shrugged. “Fair.” The two lapsed into a silence then, but it wasn’t the strained, restive kind they had known yesterday. One could not comfortably call it passive, but it didn’t make Lapis’ chest constrict and her temple throb.

The card she’d tucked beneath her bicep seemed uncannily heavy, despite it being _literally_ just a sheet of paper.

The bus rolled up shortly after, doors swinging open for the two passengers to board. Lapis fell into her regular seat, inwardly noting how much more crowded the bus seemed today, watching Peridot through the narrow corners of her eyes as she sat in Sugilite’s seat. She grimaced. Sugilite wouldn’t like it at all when she entered on the next stop to find someone else in her seat. And even worse, a _sophomore,_ at that.

Not knowing how to assess the situation, Lapis remained silent, glancing out the windows as they surged across the misty countryside, made the turn back out onto the Delmarva Route 1A and headed back into the city.

Lapis felt a lump rise in her throat when they pulled into Sugilite’s neighborhood, spotting the large senior roughing it out with Alexandrite and Stevonnie at their stop. A sideways glance revealed to her that Peridot had yet to move, completely unaware of the fact that she’d be pummeled by a very irate senior as soon as she was seen in that seat.

She could feel her jaw preparing, muscles working as she clenched her teeth and twisted around as the bus stopped to let the seniors and other stragglers on. Alexandrite entered first, and was therefore the first to notice the stray sophomore sitting in their seats. Sugilite stormed on next, took one look at Peridot and smirked darkly.

Lapis couldn’t take it anymore and reached out from her row, reaching diagonally across the aisle and grabbing onto Peridot’s shoulder. “You need to get out of that seat,” she warned in a brisk voice, fingers clenching the fabric of her jacket and tugging her up, ignoring Peridot’s “ _what, why?”_ as she stumbled into the seat next to Lapis. She hit the cushion just in time for Sugilite to stomp up to them, give them a galling once-over before dropping down into her seat, muttering something along the lines of _‘stupid underclassmen’_.

Lapis breathed roughly out from her nose as she crawled further into her seat, shoulder pressing against the cold window as Peridot adjusted, looking a little dazed at the sudden change. “Why’d you pull me over?” She asked, sounding _far_ too clueless. Lapis only rose her eyebrows at her classmate, a crooked quirk taking control of her upper lip. “She would’ve thrown you out the window if you’d stayed in her seat,” she pointed out blandly.

Peridot looked dubious. “I doubt that. I don’t think I could fit through that window. . It appears to be stuck like that.”

 _Oh my god_. Lapis clunked her forehead against the laminated glass of the window, considering how immoral of her it might have been to leave Peridot’s fate to the seniors. But what’s done was done now, she guessed. No take-backs. “Do I have to spell it out for you?” she muttered into the glass. “Sugilite would’ve kicked your ass to next Thursday.”

Peridot scrunched her nose, an arguable light in her eyes before she seemed to let it go. “I’d like to see her try,” she grumbled to herself. Lapis found that muttered remark at least a bit funny; she couldn’t imagine Peridot lasting more than a few heartbeats in an honest-to-god fist fight with Sugilite. Still, she _looked_ like she wanted to chance it just to prove she could hold her own.

They didn’t share any more words until they arrived at campus. It wasn’t until she was waiting for Peridot to get up that Lapis actually realized she’d just willingly shared her bus seat with someone. And of all people, _Peridot_.

The revelation gave her pause. She stared bemusedly at the back of Peridot’s head, trying her hardest to figure this girl out. Something that Lapis couldn’t recognize or didn’t know _how_ to recognize made her exclusively. . . she didn’t know. Frankly, that annoyed her. She wanted to be able to understand but she couldn’t.

But it didn’t mean that Peridot was in Lapis’ good graces. At least, not yet, she determined as she dropped from the bus step and began making her way to first hour.

It passed dully enough, but Lapis was ripped out of her detached trance by second period when Mr. Frowney surprised the class with a pop quiz over the previous day’s lesson. Lapis begrudgingly filled out the analysis assignment, filling in the answer slots as vaguely as possible from what little she remembered in between snores yesterday. She sighed as she sank back into her desk after handing it in, pressing her forehead against the cool desk and listening to the clock idly tick by.

At least she’d see Peridot in an hour.

 

. . .

 

Wait, where had _that_ thought come from?!

 

* * *

 

Heading to the mess hall for lunch was discomfiting in its own right. She very much disliked how _full_ the place was, a fact she had been too angry to realize yesterday when all she could think of were the eleven different ways to strangle somebody. Fortunately, she found a round table at the back of the cafeteria that was empty, and stole a seat before any other student could claim the table as theirs. She supposed _this_ could be her new lunch turf. . . even if it was dirty and had a weird, stagnant odor that reminded her of mildew. _Gross._

Lapis hardly glanced up from her book to see what kid had come up to the table, ready to wave them off, but her immediate veto shriveled up in her throat when she saw Peridot shifting from foot-to-foot at the other end of the roundtable. She didn’t even have to say anything before Peridot began to prattle out a frantic explanation.

“The table I was sitting at yesterday got taken over by the basketball girls and there are no other available seats that I’m willing to take because I _still_ don’t know anybody and there was that _scary_ senior with the sunglasses from this morning making faces at me from across the cafeteria so now I’m _here_ and--” She inhaled deeply, clutching her bag to her chest as she stared imploringly at Lapis. “Can I sit with you?”

Was she serious? Lapis tried to believe that she was joking, but the innocent sincerity in Peridot’s huge eyes said otherwise. An amused part of her mind compared the expression to a cat meme she swore she’d seen on the internet somewhere.

With a resigned sigh, Lapis leaned her face into one of her palms, leaving the other hand to gesture her approval to sit. “Sure.”

“Wow, thanks!” Peridot’s face split with a grateful grin as she placed her things on the ground and moved to take a seat _right_ next to Lapis, but Lapis was quicker, correcting her with a quick _“no”_ and motioning to the seat opposite her. “There’s fine.”

“If you insist,” Peridot smiled still, dropping onto the stool. Her expression morphed from brashly blithesome to simply cheery as she dug a brown bag lunch from her bag as well as a few books. “What are you reading, Lazuli?”

“A book.”

“Very funny. No, really! What’re you reading?”

Lapis smirked to herself, placing her thumb on the page and showing its cover to Peridot. “ _The Unfamiliar Familiar_ ,” she told. “A friend of mine gave it to me a few years ago.”

Peridot regarded the cover art thoughtfully, squinting before scratching thoughtfully at the side of her cheek. Then she bolted upright, an enthusiastic smile on her face. “Ooh! They’re part of the _Spirit Morph Saga!_ Steven reads the copies that his friend brings over sometimes. I’ve never read them myself but I give him the benefit of my trust when he says they’re worth the read!”

Lapis hummed her acknowledgment, effectively ending the short-lived conversation. She tried to seem busy with the book, seeing the paragraphs and little illustrations embedded throughout the pages but never quite reading it. She didn’t think she could even try to focus on the scene with someone else there. She’d read this book at least twice by now, too. She didn’t mind the re-reads; in fact, each time she re-read it she found something new she hadn’t seen before, an unseen context she hadn’t caught on to before.

But she knew what to expect from its ending, is the thing. She knew that Lisa and Archimicarus would inevitably enter the alternate dimension to save Lisa’s lost father before cutting off at a cliff-hanger where the next book picked up. She’d read that one, too, so it wasn’t even suspenseful anymore. Besides, there was something new brought to the table that Lapis just couldn’t apprehend and seemed worth more scrutiny than _The Unfamiliar Familiar_ book in front of her. Or _someone_ , rather.

She glanced up through her lashes at Peridot, who was now staring down at a computer science textbook that was basically a total foreign language to Lapis, one hand tracing the edge of the cover and the other absently doodling in her journal.

Seeing the journal ( _A diary?_ Lapis wondered) reminded her of yesterday evening, where she’d caught Peridot out in the middle of the woods. She let her eyes wander over the well-worn pages of the thing. It would be a stretch to call Peridot an. . _artist_. And Lapis was being generous with even a comparison. Maybe it was because it was upside-down to her, but it looked like just a few wads of lead scritches.

Peridot must have caught her staring because the pencil stopped moving, relaxing in Peridot’s hand as she moved to twist the pad around to give Lapis a better look. It still looked like chicken-scratch. “It’s a _definite_ work in progress, _but_ ,” Peridot pondered, tapping the edge of the journal with her pencil, “I _like_ it! Have you ever been in the forest across the field from our houses? I sat down yesterday and got this basic sketchy premise of a little clearing I found-- I even found this old shack, up in the trees back there!”

Lapis breathed a little easier. So she _hadn’t_ seen Lapis yesterday. That was consoling. But that didn’t explain _why_ she’d been in the woods at all. Plus, what and where was this old shack she was talking about?

“. . Yeah, I’ve been in the forest a few times,” she fibbed, leaning her cheek into her fist as she disinterestedly flipped another page of her book. “I don’t know what shed you’re talking about though.”

 _“Well._ . it’s more of an old _treehouse_ than a shed,” Peridot flippantly replied, waving her hand dismissively. “It’s practically falling apart! I guess it’d be really easy to miss if you’re not _looking_ for it.”

Lapis lifted a brow. “Were you looking for it?”

“. . . _No._ ”

“That doesn’t sound very convincing.”

 _“It’s--”_ Peridot started but stopped with a stammer, leaning back in the seat as she tried to word it correctly. “It’s not that I was looking for it-- I just felt. . . _compelled_ to go out there. Into the woods! Something about being out there that’s kind of. . irresistible, actually! It’s got _charm._ ”

“Charm, huh?” Lapis mimicked flatly, looking up only when Peridot nodded frivolously. “Right! You should-- go out with me sometime!”

 _That_ made Lapis do a double take, staring Peridot down with huge eyes that must have looked at _least_ slightly comical on her wan face. “Go _out_ with you?” She intoned acutely, casting a nervous glance at the crowded room around them. No one had heard, had they?

Peridot’s lips parted to agree, but she paused. Her face fell as very, _very_ quickly, all fifty shades of red seemed to blossom beneath her skin. “Oh my _gosh, no-_ \- not-- not like _that,_ I meant--!” Peridot hid her face behind her tiny hands, a smothered squealing sound emerging from her small frame as her neck flushed with pink. “I meant out into the woods! I can-- show you the _treehouse,_ and-- heck, that was terrible, I’m-- sorry? I think? Should I be saying sorry?”

 _“I don’t know!_ ” Lapis coughed, a thrill of energy running up her spine as she hid her now-also-blushing face behind her slender hands. She wasn’t sure what she was blushing more about: Peridot’s blunder, or the fact that her heart had jumped out of her chest when Peridot had asked _that._ Peridot didn’t seem to take the hint to drop it, either, continuing to ramble in a choked voice. “I didn’t mean to ask you out like _that,_ I meant like take you _out_ \--”

“Not helping!” Lapis shrilled, stopping her before she could take the matter any further. “If you stop talking right now, I’ll go with you.”

“Okay, because I-- _wait,_ really?” Peridot faced Lapis, revealing for the first time just how _hard_ the blonde had been blushing; it was like someone had attacked her with Vidalia’s art supplies.

“ _Yes,_ ” muttered Lapis, sealing the deal and, apparently, her afternoon plans as she pressed her fingers into the sides of her curved nose. The two sat in awkward silence for a while more, the medium shattering only when Peridot dug into her brown paper bag and pulled out a sandwich, offering the other triangular half to Lapis.

“You want the other half of my sandwich? It’s turkey, no cheese. Lactose intolerant.”

“. . Yeah.”

* * *

 

The two climbed off the bus together, Peridot leading with Lapis following clemently behind. They had only just ditched their bags in a stunted patch of shrubbery when Steven caught them, racing up to them with wide eyes and arms held open even wider as he crashed into Peridot. “How was _schoooool?”_

Peridot writhed in Steven’s grasp, not unlike a cat not wanting to be held, expression botched with embarrassment as she pried herself out of the boy’s grasp. “Fine,” she wheezed, left leg thrusting backward to kick her bag deeper into the bush. She missed at first, Lapis noted with a wry half-smirk.

Steven also noticed, head lurching around Peridot to take a look at their things thrown haphazardly into the bushes. “Where are you two going?”

“Our own place you don’t know about,” Peridot preened.

Steven blinked. “Are you going into the woods?”

“Wh-- _no!_ . . Okay, yes, we’re going into the woods. But don’t tell Pearl or Garnet!”

Steven grinned, raising his fingers to his lips and making a zipping motion. “My lips are _sealed_.”

Peridot frowned playfully. “If your lips are sealed you can’t _speak,_ remember?”

Steven gasped, throwing his hands to his face and miming a lock and key at the corner of his mouth, throwing the key into the bushes with a content grunt. “ _Mm-hmm!_ ”

Peridot nodded happily, marching confidently past Steven and turning around, gesturing wildly for Lapis to follow. “C’mon! We’re wasting daylight here!”

Lapis tore herself out of her languour, blinking back to reality as she waved good-bye to Steven and followed after Peridot. If she was honest with herself, the little dynamic Peridot had with her foster brother was. . . cute. She’d have to ask her about it later, how that whole foster thing works.

Before they made it past Lapis’ house, though, she made a quick dash to the small cubby in the back and ditched her shoes. It always felt weird if she wore her sneakers into the forest. It felt less real, the soil and mulch less palpable beneath her toes. Peridot gave her a funny look but didn’t question it as they made way across the field between them and the treeline.

“ _Ahhh,_ ” Peridot exhaled contentedly as the dappled shadows of the canopies draped over their skin, softening the sun’s intensity and dropping the temperature by a few degrees. “This is nice. _Oh-_ \- and there’s the rope!”

Lapis watched after Peridot as the shorter girl stumbled over the ragged terrain and approached the elevated edge of the creek. Seeing Peridot next to the drop into the trickling waters below made Lapis realize just how tall the cliff surrounding this part of the creek was; it wasn’t short like the bluff around the pool.

“Careful,” Lapis emptily advised as Peridot struggled to snag the wiry ends of the dangling rope. She was content to watch at first, but on Peridot’s third attempt she gave up and moved over, hovering over Peridot and grabbing the thorough knot. She handed it to Peridot, who blinked at her, then at the rope, then back to Lapis and gave a small sheepish chuckle. “It was easier to grab at yesterday.”

It _was_ her who had used the rope yesterday. “I’m sure it was,” Lapis chimed, stretching her arms high behind her head as Peridot scrambled up the slope, climbing atop the log that gave them the highest vantage point over the creek. She gave a strained _“a-one, a-two, and a-_ **_three!_ ** _”_ before launching across the creek, vanishing into the plush ferns on the other side with a nasally holler.

A second later the rope swung back, caught easily by Lapis’ ready hand. She mimicked what Peridot had done, standing uneasily on the edge of the log and tightening her grip on the rope.

“Peridot?” She called out, waiting for any sort of reply from the other side. When there was none, her resolve wavered slightly and her grip loosened, almost enough for the rope to slide from her fingertips. It returned with a vengeance as soon as she saw a messy head of hair poke out from the greenery, a zealous grin sat right in the middle of Peridot’s face as she waved at Lapis. “It’s easy! Promise!”

Lapis’ lips pulled into a taut line as she shifted her weight, preparing to jump. “I know how to use it,” she muttered to herself, leaning back and throwing herself forward. Adrenaline rushed beneath her skin at the brief sensation of weightlessness, the high immediately draining when she felt herself land in the foliage on the opposite side.

Peridot was already racing away, just a blonde head bobbing over a line of bushes. Lapis huffed and leaped up after her, moving between trunks and clumps of thorn bushes to keep up. They must have been rushing through the forest for quite some time, because by the time Lapis could see something hanging in the trees her feet were beginning to mildly ache.

Peridot was scaling a large, gnarled fallen branch, clambering up in record time. The treehouse that she’d been talking about was completely falling apart. The wood was old and dark with age, rotted through in some places. Even the branches that encompassed it seemed dark and devoid of life, not a single leaf to be seen on their extending twigs and boughs.

“It’s all dead,” Lapis observed bluntly from below, sounding unimpressed as she stared up at the decrepit old treehouse.

“What? It’s not _dead_ ,” Peridot implored from inside, the sounds of a struggle coming from within before her head peered out over the edge at Lapis. She had leaves stuck in her hair. She held out her hand, and in it there was a clump of bright green leaves. “It’s full of life in here! All living and stuff! And that’s what _I’m_ doing! Just, _living_ here!” Peridot smiled down from the dilapidated construct. “Well, I’m not technically _living_ here, but you get what I mean, right? Maybe? That like all the vines and vegetation I’m surviving nature’s ca--”

“I got it,” Lapis cut in, uneasily eyeing the large branch that Peridot had scaled up without so much as breaking a sweat. Was she just supposed to climb up there? What if she fell? “Peridot?”

“Yeah?” The voice carried down as Peridot backed away from the entrance to the abandoned treehouse, followed by a yelp and the clattering of various metal objects hitting the rotted wood floor. Lapis didn’t even want to know _how_ Peridot had found them.

“How did you get up there so easily?”

Peridot poked her head out, glasses sitting crookedly on her nose as she regarded Lapis with curiosity. “Simple! I just placed my hands and feet on the best branches and propelled myself up. It’s all about where you put your weight.” She grinned down at Lapis before disappearing into the treehouse again. Lapis threw her head back and sighed at the sky. What was she even doing out here with this crazy smart-alec of a blonde?

Still, she felt some sort of obligation to at least _attempt_ to get up there. She’d come this far, after all. She grabbed onto the first foothold she could make out and lifted herself up.

Lapis monkeyed her way up the branches, knuckles white with force as she hauled herself up. It was much easier to lift yourself when the water’s buoyancy made you feel lighter, she inwardly remarked with a wry face. Her feet stung slightly from scraping against the coarse bark, but she still didn’t regret chucking her shoes at the house.

With a huff that might have been proud, she heaved herself up onto the porch paneling, laying face-down on the wood for a few seconds before the voice of Peridot carrying from inside willed her to rise up and enter.

Peridot was right about one thing: it _was_ much greener on the inside. It wasn’t exactly _lush,_ but the walls were spotted with rich plasters of moss and lichen. Branches criss-crossed overhead, deep, curled leaves hugging the sabled sprigs. Otherwise, though, it was really run-down. It had been forgotten a long, long time ago.

“It _definitely_ needs some work, for starters,” Peridot determined, grabbing a chip of wood that had splintered off of a support plank and giving it, for some star-forsaken reason, a prompt lick. Lapis winced, her own tongue stinging imagining getting a splinter from licking a crisp of wood. “A fixer-upper, as it were!”

Lapis leaned back against the trunk that snaked through the wall of the treehouse, folding her arms coolly over her chest. “Why do we have to fix it?”

“Well, why not?” Peridot smiled back. “It just needs some TLC! I don’t think anyone else is going to give it the time of day, so, why don’t we?”

The argument wasn’t compelling. Not to Lapis, who kind of just wanted to go home. She gave it a moment of faux thought before rolling her shoulders in a hapless shrug. “I dunno. It isn’t ours?”

“No,” Lapis decided for Peridot. She’d never even seen this place before, so what business did she have trying to fix it up? She’d likely never be back to it. It was only today’s frazzling lunch hour that yielded her presence here. She wasn’t here just to hang out with Peridot; if anything it was a way to possibly get Peridot off her back.

 _. . . Right?_ As much as she tried to convince herself of that notion, it didn’t sit well on her conscience.

Peridot, nonetheless, was wholly unphased by Lapis’ attestation. She moved around the treehouse, studying the gnarled, vine-covered walls, making thoughtful noises as she sized the place up. “I’m sure that Pearl could spare a _few_ of the planks leftover from beginning renovations,” she muttered to herself. “Anything to shape up this rot.”

Lapis stood up straight, moving over to a hole in the treehouse wall and peering out into the woods. The canopies seemed to eat up most of the sunlight, leaving the forest floor dark and spotted with golden shards of light. It was kinda pretty up from up here. Maybe climbing up here every once in a while wouldn’t be too bad. If she were alone up here, it might even have the same effect as swimming in the cove. That thought didn’t seem too bad.

When she heard an ominous _creak_ she took a glance over her shoulder. Peridot was standing in the centre of the treehouse, scowling down at the floor as she ground the toe of her boots into the ancient wood. It gave another resounding groan, and Lapis turned around with a tick in her brow. “I wouldn’t do that.”

“Oh, it’ll be fine,” Peridot soothed, putting her hands over her hips. “Trust me, I’d know if something couldn’t support me. I’m _that_ perceptive.”

Apparently, Peridot’s perception was incredibly skewed. A sharp crack split the air as the rotten wood beneath Peridot’s feet gave out beneath her weight, fracturing apart and sending Peridot careening down to the earth below with a startled shriek.

Lapis flew into action with little more than a sharp intake of breath, lithe arms outstretching to grab onto Peridot’s jacket as she fell through the rupture. Her breath caught in her throat when she _missed_ . Peridot’s scream of terror was promptly cut short when one of her flailing hands was caught in an iron grip. The blonde jolted at the sensation, lurching with a strident “ _ow!”_ as her descending momentum tried to correct itself.

Lapis had caught her hand just in time. She could feel something in her shoulder twitch with distress at the new weight pulling at her muscles, threatening to suck her into the same hole that had just taken Peridot. She crouched with a grunt, her free hand gripping a stronger slat of wood to keep herself steady. She could feel splinters wedging into her fingers as she pulled against gravity, hands clammy with dread as time slowed and it was just them and their hands held so tightly that their skins were bleached white.

Lapis could feel a bead of sweat slither down the side of her cheek and winced, shuffling her feet. “I’m-- I’m gonna pull you up!” She hissed through gritted teeth, pressing her heels into the floorboards and freeing her steady hand to wrap it around Peridot’s forearm.

 _“Please!_ ” Peridot whimpered from below, fearfully eyeing the ground below as she was slowly pulled back up into the treehouse.

Lapis realized she’d been holding her breath as she let out a huge sigh of relief, letting go of Peridot once she was safe and placing a hand over her hammering heart. Peridot was staring at the mismatched branches above them with huge, wired eyes, likely going over how very close she’d just been to breaking a leg, or worse. Lapis didn’t even know what she’d _do_ if Peridot had fallen through completely and hit the ground before Lapis could grab her. She didn’t have a phone, and the nearest landline had to be at their houses. She’d have to leave Peridot there-- probably unable to walk in the middle of the forest-- as she sprinted back and made the call for paramedics and… She figured she’d better just be grateful she’d been fast enough to catch her before it came down to that.

“Holy smokes,” was the only thing Peridot uttered as she laid flat against the floor.

Lapis collapsed backward, legs splayed out as she sat dazedly on the floor of the treehouse next to Peridot. She then realized the weight of what she’d done. She’d basically just saved Peridot’s _life._ Her wide eyes sank down to Peridot, unaccustomed to her when she wasn’t talking about one thing or another.

“Peridot,” she tried on a dry tongue, brows drawn in a perturbed line. “Are you okay?”

Peridot blinked up at her with round green eyes before a flush stole into her cheeks and she beamed happily (and kind of dopily) up at Lapis. The blue-haired girl blushed next, turning to hide it as gave the fresh hole in the decaying wood a blank but patronizing glance, before turning it to Peridot with renewed conviction.

“We’re going to need to fix the floor first.”


	3. Chapter 3

As it turned out, Peridot was incredibly handy with a toolkit.

For the next few days, both Lapis and Peridot would scramble off the bus as quickly as they could without tripping over themselves and enter the forest. It started becoming a challenge of trying to outrun the other to the rope over the creek. Lapis always won, naturally, smirking across the waters when a wheezing, fumbling Peridot would pause for a breather on the log.

They’d been sneaking wooden planks and flats from Peridot’s house without her other foster family members being any the wiser, pulling them to the treehouse _a la sled-style_ on a tough old vinyl tarp Lapis had found in her backyard shed.

Lapis had begun getting progressively more inspired and exertive over the past few days, the excitement of having something constant to look forward to at the end of the school day breathing some new form of life into her. She wasn’t nearly as skilled with a hammer as Peridot, but she felt helpful enough when she held the boards steady and reached for whatever Peridot couldn’t.

It was absent minded work when she wanted it to be, but as of late, she’d been thinking more critically. That little voice inside of her that had always been so quiet was speaking up more and more, pointing things out that she hadn’t considered before. Like the fact that she hadn’t been swimming in the cove for nearly a week now. She’d been so busy with the treehouse, and. . honestly, it left her feeling more fulfilled than a dip in the cold waters.

The first thing they’d done to the treehouse was throw a sturdy plank on the part of the floor that had caved in to prevent any further incident. Next they reinforced the walls, making sure that they could at least support some weight incase one of them leaned against the paneling. At Lapis’ insistence, they’d found a tough vine that they now used to climb the bough-way into the treehouse with more ease. Peridot was okay with it because she’d fallen off after a misstep the day before.

The more Lapis learned about rebuilding something that had been blackened by time and weathering, the more she seemed to learn about Peridot.

For one, she was a chatterbox. Her voice seemed to fill the quiet, woody space whenever there was silence, and it was. . kind of nice; it was a distraction that wasn’t _completely_ welcomed on Lapis’ behalf, but she had become accustomed to it after a few days of it.

Second, Peridot thought of herself as an innovator. It appeared that the journal she’d seen the blonde lugging around was an old “diary” (Peridot had used the term to explain it _very_ loosely) she’d transformed into a log book and sketchpad for any idea that popped into her head. She insisted that she had invented a new form of nameless contemporary abstract art, the same genre that Lapis had seen scribbled heatedly into her journal days before.

Lapis also remembered explaining to Peridot that she’d once been partial to watercolour painting once they got on the topic of artsy things. She’d never been good with acrylic paints alone, but had always liked when she could mix water into whatever she’d dab down on paper or canvas. She hadn’t drawn in years, though; her enthusiasm for painting had been drowned out like everything else when she’d. . . well, she wasn’t sure, but it was like the art didn’t bring her any rapture anymore.

Well. Peridot’s rendition of art definitely wasn’t _art,_ but it was. . . something. It was up for debate. Peridot had lamented on how she’d been trying to come up with a clear and unique name to title her new artistic construct, and on a thoughtless whim Lapis had suggested _meep morp,_ thinking of how Peridot had that alien motif. It ended up sticking because Peridot had giggled so hard at the idea of it.

She also learned that Peridot’s snickering cackle of a laugh was as contagious as it was definitively ridiculous. Lapis initially made fun of her for it, but she was called out when she’d begun to laugh about something and, out of every noise her mouth could have made while laughing, _snorted_. Peridot didn’t let her live it down for the rest of the day before they went home at dusk.

It was Friday now, roughly a week and a half since they had begun renovations on the treehouse. In reality, they had only really been working on it in bulk for the first three days, and the rest had been spent either sitting up in the boughs or seeing how far they could launch pinecones from the gap in the wall they’d determined would stay to act as a window.

Lapis boarded the bus alongside Peridot, waving at Steven as the boy saw them off. He was curious about the pair of them, she knew at least that much, and that he was almost this overseeing _guardian (_ semi-motherly?) figure to Peridot, despite his youth, and also despite the fact that he was an adolescent. And also a boy. Peridot explained that they were only seventeen months apart when Lapis expressed this, and noted Steven just had a serious case of baby-face.

“He’s not the only one,” Lapis had jibed at that, forcing her lips to purse to stop from chuckling when the sportive barb soared right over Peridot’s head: “Yeah, just like that clod Aquamarine! She’s practically an uptight toddler in a uniform!”

The rest of the working school day passed by normally. There was this unspoken anticipation for the final bell that would introduce the weekend, sending all the kids home in an adventure-hungry tizzy. True to the term, Lapis shoved her way through an exhilarated gaggle of freshmen to get to her waiting bus, leaping up the steps and heading to the back. She took the window seat before Peridot, sending the blonde a smug look over the seats as she climbed onto the bus.

Being able to sit in the same bench seat as Lapis was lucky enough; if Peridot tried to take the window she would lose all seat-sharing privileges and need to sit on the floor. She’d learned that the hard way two days ago. Lapis exhaled as her shoulder bumped against the metal frame, watching the giggling students outside mill about as Peridot dropped down next to her, muttering some technical vocabulary terms Lapis didn’t even try to translate into commonspeople English.

“How did your exam go?” Lapis asked, drawing her knees up and pressing the bottoms of her shoes into the back of the seat in front of her, ignoring the dirty look the junior in it gave her. Peridot sucked her teeth in response, pinching the bridge of her nose as she ceased her muttering.

“That bad?”

“The material that Mrs. Fluorite said would definitely _not_ be included on the exam was very much _on the exam_ ,” she sighed showily, deflating into their seat as the bus began to shift into drive. “I’d studied, literally, quite _everything_ except for that one section because she insisted it wouldn’t be on the test. But, suddenly, there it was, in the first question!” Peridot threw her arms out dramatically, turning to Lapis for emotional respite. Her only consolation came in the form of a half-smirk and a helpless shrug.

Peridot made a frazzled noise, rough and guttural at the back of her mouth. “This is _just_ like the seventh episode of Camp Pining Hearts,” she muttered to the air. “Where they said there _wouldn’t_ be a three-legged race but there was, and _Percy_ \--”

Lapis stopped Peridot with a confused look. “What’s Camp Pining Hearts?”

Peridot gasped exaggeratedly, turning on Lapis accusingly. “You’re telling _me-_ -” She placed a hand in mock offense over her chest (actually, Lapis wasn’t sure if it was genuine or not, the other girl looked so _astonished_ ), staring up at Lapis as if she’d sprouted a second head. “That you’ve never _seen_ or _read_ Camp Pining Hearts?”

“Nope.”

“An absolute _travesty,_ ” Peridot whispered rawly. She snapped up quickly just a second after, eyes bright with determination. “My grief for the exam is now pardoned. I _have_ to fix this first. I have some of the most _exclusive_ Camp Pining Hearts graphic novels in my room, we have to stop by my house before we go to the treehouse today.”

Lapis blinked. “Do we have to?”

“ _Yes!_ ” Peridot shrilled. “Unless you want to miss out on one of the _most_ riveting, plot-driven dramas of the twenty-first century?! . . Well, _technically,_ it’s from the twentieth century, but, its superiority over today’s _aimless_ television shows lets it keep its throne at the very top.” Peridot came down from her spat with energy, excitedly hugging her knees to her chest. “We’ll just have to settle for the novels for now. Since there’s no power to plug in my box TV set out in the forest.”

Lapis slightly lamented the fact that they couldn’t just hole up somewhere with electricity and just watch it. She didn’t have a television in her house, so to be able to sit and watch any kind of flickering screen was a rare blessing-- even if nothing ever really captivated her attention, from what she’d seen on public channels elsewhere.

The bus rolled through its routes, the raucous blathering of numerous kids dwindling into only a handful of voices as they jumped off the Delmarva 1A and onto Lapis’ and Peridot’s sideroad. They were already up and on their feet by the time it cruised to a stop and the doors parted to grant them leave.

“Have a nice afternoon, ladies,” Mr. DeMayo bid as he shut the doors after them, leaving the two girls in the bus’ dusty wake before they turned and began to head towards Peridot’s house instead of in the direction of the woods.

“I apologize in advance if anyone tries to talk to you,” Peridot sheepishly grumbled as they moved through the grassy yard and stepped up onto the white wooden porch. Her little hand grabbed onto the dented knob, giving it an experimental jiggle before silently shoving the door in. “I’m gonna-- go run upstairs and grab them,” the blonde whispered hoarsely as she tiptoed into the house, and warily Lapis wondered if there was a _reason_ she was sneaking into her own house. She leaped to the foot of the stairs sitting across to the front door, stopping with one foot lifted as she turned around to look at Lapis. “Do you-- wanna come with, or?”

“Uhh-- no, I-- I can stay down here,” Lapis undertoned dismissively, not understanding why her face felt like it had warmed by a few degrees. Peridot shrugged and began to clamber up the steps with shocking speed.

Unfortunately, the quick footfalls weren’t silent. An unfamiliar, lithe white face popped out from around a yawning door frame, locking astonished eyes with an equally astonished Lapis as the sophomore froze up. “ _Um--_ ”

“Garnet!” The woman called, and Lapis could hear a muffled, mildly accented voice drift in from the room over. The woman only let out a huff, stepping out from behind the frame. She was wiping willowy hands with a scented towel, regarding Lapis with curious but analytical eyes as the blue-haired teenager hovered uncertainly in the hallway.

“Are you one of Steven’s friends that we don’t know about?” The tall woman asked, resting her hands speculatively over her hips. “He usually tells us when he meets somebody new.”

A second head emerged from the doorway, looming roughly a head taller than the slender woman, and Lapis could only guess that this must have been Garnet. She was well-toned with deep, dark skin, and. . she was wearing sunglasses indoors. For some odd reason.

“I don’t believe this is one of Steven’s friends, Pearl,” Garnet said with an amused smile as she sidled in beside Pearl. She emanated a less neurotic air than the latter. If anything, she seemed stoical as she smiled passively down at Lapis. “Hello there, Ms. Lazuli.”

“Uh-- my last name is actually Kaile’a, but, thanks.” Lapis anxiously gripped her forearm, rubbing her thumb tentatively against the tanned skin as the two older women doted over her.

“ _Ooh,_ is this be girl that Peridot’s been talking about?”

Peridot was talking about her?

“I suppose you should ask. After all, she’s standing in front of us.”

Yeah, that would be make things a little less uncomfortable for Lapis.

“Right!” Pearl turned to Lapis, a hesitating, strained smile on her face as she held a hand out to Lapis, who took it waveringly. “Well, I’m _very_ glad to meet you, Lapis. We moved here because Peridot was having _such_ a hard time at her last school making any sort of friends.”

Lapis hadn’t known that, but honestly, it didn’t surprise her too much. “Sorry to hear.”

“Oh, no need to be _anymore_ ,” Pearl twittered right on. “You’re practically all she ever talks about when we ask her about how school went these days.” She turned to the other woman, gesturing for confirmation.  “Right, Garnet?”

Lapis found Garnet watching her when she turned towards her, not really registering the weightiness of the large woman’s gaze because of what Pearl had said about Peridot.

Who was apparently talking about her.

A lot.

“Pearl,” Garnet smiled, a coy smudge of knowing etched into her tone. “She’s blushing.”

“What?” Lapis’ hands flew to her face, finding the skin of her cheeks warm to the touch. Mortification brewed within her as she pointedly rubbed the muscles, trying to will away the rose tint staining her face. Why was she blushing again?

Garnet and Pearl shared a clever look that Lapis only caught the tail end of as Pearl clucked her tongue and tucked her towel into her back pocket. “Where is Peridot, by the way? Was that her running up the stairs just a minute ago?”

“Yeah,” Lapis nodded quietly. “I’m just waiting for her to come down from upstairs.”

Garnet nodded affirmatively, taking a glance up the stairway to the second level of the house. “She’ll be down shortly, I’m sure.”

 _I hope so,_ Lapis mentally interjected. Her bare foot reached up and grazed gracelessly over the other. Looking back up revealed that Pearl and Garnet were already drifting away, apparently satisfied with their first impression of her. Lapis couldn’t help but want to eavesdrop on the leftover bits of conversation between the two as they left the hall, headed into what she saw to be a kitchen. Garnet was chuckling as she ducked under the frame. “I think they’re cute.”

“Oh, _please,_ Garnet, I’m just glad she’s found a friend,” Lapis heard Pearl sigh, sounding baffled, as Peridot scrambled back down from upstairs, a number of graphic novels and a GameBoy clenched in her hands. “Got ‘em!” She wheezed, stumbling down the last few steps but catching herself on the railing.

“Fall down those a lot?” Lapis speculated, eyebrows high with amusement as Peridot righted herself checked that she hadn’t dropped anything. “Yup. But I usually catch myself, so it’s all good!”

“Fair enough,” Lapis settled, following Peridot out the door. Peridot ended up zipping her stuff up into her backpack as they scurried across the field, breaking through the treeline and taking turns in swinging across the creek on the rope. Lapis reached the treehouse first, scaling the creepers and crawling inside, huffing contentedly when she saw the bag of snacks she’d brought in yesterday were still sitting there and not torn apart by some raccoon.

“ _Yesss,_ ” she hissed through a relieved smile as she swarmed the stash and took out the first thing that appealed to her: an entire, family-sized box of cereal she may or may not have stolen from the pantry. She just hoped her mother wouldn’t go asking where the big box of Trix had gone.

Peridot climbed in shortly after Lapis had ripped the box open, face fraught with confusion as she watched Lapis pause, reach her hand slowly into the cereal box, and take out a handful. She balled it into a fist, raising her eyebrows questioningly at Peridot and rearing her arm back in a pivot, like she was about to throw a handful of cereal at her.

“ _Don’t_ ,” Peridot warned, catching on and definitely _not_ liking the mischievous glint in Lapis’ eyes. “Unless you plan to share that.”

“Not happening.”

The blonde shrugged as a few Trix pieces smacked into her face, but she managed to catch one in her teeth, much to Lapis' amusement. “I tried," Peridot mused as sat back against the wall, shoveling through her bag and bringing out the Camp Pining Hearts comics and showing it to Lapis with a grin. “I hope you can eat and read at the same time.”

Lapis regarded Peridot flatly. “I can’t even enjoy my cereal in peace first?”

“No.”

“Ugh.”

“You’ll never know until you try it,” Peridot tempted further, dangling the graphic novel in front of her face like it was some treat to beheld. The absurdity of it was enough to win Lapis over with a sigh of surrender. “ _Okay_ ,” Lapis ceded, holding out a hand as an enthralled grin split Peridot’s face from ear-to-ear. “Give me one of your geeky little comics.”

* * *

“They can’t just-- end it _there!_ ” Lapis growled frustratedly, snapping the last of the comics shut and throwing it exasperatedly over the floor at Peridot. “What happens after? What about the canoe race?”

Peridot, who was tapping nonchalantly at the buttons on her GameBoy, peered at Lapis through her half-lidded eyes, lips pursed in a sedulous manner. She looked like a troubled therapist about to make a shocking discovery as she lowered the glowing screen. “My, such fascination in my _geeky little comics_ , don’t you think?”

“I’m _serious,_ Peridot! Where did Peter’s shoes go? Did they throw them in the lake?”

Peridot cackled, a simpering grin stealing her pale face as she “You like it, _don’t you_ , Lazuli?”

Lapis stubbornly threw her arms over her chest, lips clamped stiffly together as she put on her best angsty face of teenage denial. Was she really going to give Peridot the satisfaction of admitting she was now _hooked_ on this stupid, soap opera-esque brand of media?

“It’s not bad,” she decided to admit in a forcefully listless tone of voice.

“Oh, don’t you give me that ‘ _it’s not bad_ ’!” Peridot retorted, leaning in close and jabbing a critical finger into the blue-haired girl’s chest. “You just spent _hours_ reading every page! You don’t even know or comprehend the context of the whole sub-plot revolving around Percy and Pierre-- let me tell you, I’ve written whole _essays_ about those two and their compatibility together.”

Lapis snorted dismissively and shoved Peridot away with her shoulder. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

“ _Hey_ , I resent that,” Peridot cackled as she rolled onto her back, facing the overlapping branches that stretched out above them and closing her eyes. “But if you want to see more, we can watch all five seasons at my house anytime.” Her eyes opened for a second, narrowed with contempt. “Maybe only four. Season five is terrible. Ugh, no, then you'd miss out on the whole hidden sub-plot between the blue campers halfway through the season. You need the _full_ experience.”

Peridot went silent again Lapis inattentively followed her example, stretching out on her back opposite from the blonde so that their heads were side-by-side, but their bodies pointed in completely different directions. If Lapis stretched out her leg any farther it could probably hit the wall.

The easy wind was gently sifting through the overlying layers of boughs above them, revealing glimpses of the intense dusky-indigo sky beyond. Lapis’ eyes shot wide with bewilderment. “Wow,” she voiced simply. “We’ve been out here for a long time.”

“Have we?” Peridot pried open an eyelid to check, expression breaking into one of perplexion as she took in the deepening twilight. “I suppose you’re right. I think I can make out stars already. They’re easily one of the more positive parts of living so far out of a city. All that smog would never let us get a sight like _this. . ._ even if it’s through the treetops, but I think that just emboldens the point I’m trying to make.”

Lapis scratched thoughtfully at her cheek. She supposed that Peridot was right about one thing: the kids who lived deeper into the city would never be able to see the sky without light pollution fogging up the horizon and swallowing stars whole. It wasn’t revolutionary, but it made her. . . that notion from before was just the right word. Thoughtful.

“I never thought of it like that,” she admitted. “I’ve lived out here for as long as I can remember, so I never thought of a. . . clear night sky as something all too special.”

Peridot smiled across from her. “That’s just the point! Sometimes we miss what’s been right beneath our noses the whole time just because we don’t take the time to notice it. . . especially if it’s this. . _big_ thing that’s always been there. We have to take advantage of it before someone else who won’t be as grateful for it does.”

Peridot was far too skilled at this whole _philosophist’s act_ for her own good. Lapis glanced at Peridot, brows knitted pensively together as she mulled over the blonde’s words. Some truth in it corresponded and construed within her, wanting to spell out some subconscious vices that Lapis wasn’t sure she wanted to delve into right now. Nervously, she breathed in through her nose, moving her eyes away.

“So. . . what’s the deal with your foster family?”

Maybe she’d store those truths away for another night.

“Ugh, it’s so _complicated_ to explain,” Peridot griped, not affected in the slightest by Lapis’ brisk shift in the conversation. “No one’s related, first off. It’s essentially this big house of once-strangers, now-family-members and it never fails to amaze and baffle me. Simultaneously!”

Lapis thought that made sense. None of them even so much as resembled one another. “So what’s the deal with them?”

“ _Well_ , if you want the _long_ story--”

“Short’s fine.”

“Very well.” Peridot reached up to adjust her glasses, the fingers tapping scrupulously on the bridge of her nose as she explained her foster situation. “Steven is the son of Pearl’s late. . . _confidante_. His father couldn’t support him for the most of his childhood, so Pearl took him in, and she lived with Garnet and Amethyst during college, and the three of them have been stuck together since. They're like. . . my caretakers? At the same time?”

“Mm-hmm,” Lapis prompted, before feeling her lips contort with bemusement. “Wait, who’s Amethyst?”

“Oh, she’s-- _wait,_ why do you ask like you know the others?”

Lapis shrugged plainly, trying to look faultless and failing, if Peridot’s flustered reaction was any inclination. “Oh my _stars,_ ” she was groaning into her hands. “What did they say to you? They can be so--”

“No, they were. .” Lapis stepped in before Peridot could panic any further, but lost the words somewhere, not knowing whether or not she should tell Peridot about what Pearl had said about her. She’d likely be as mortified as Lapis was to hear she’d been blushing after hearing it. “They were okay. A little weird, though.”

The air trapped in Peridot’s cheeks flooded out in one big, relieved exhale. “Oh _good_ ,” she grumbled contentedly, hands dropping back into her jacket pockets. “I was worried they’d said something embarrassing about me.”

Lapis felt her brows raise into her messy fringe as she bit down on her bottom lip, offering only a small ‘ _mm-hmm_ ’ in response as she stubbornly kept her eyes glued to the treetops.

The cicadas had begun to rouse, their tedious song churring through the air as nightfall crawled closer, draping the two girls in embalmed shadow. The quiet was nice as opposed to the sprightly interplay Lapis and Peridot usually harbored together.

Lapis breathed in deeply, the diluted scent of moss and old wood tantalizing her senses. Leaves crinkled beneath the clamour of the cicadas at bay and foliage rustled beneath the treehouse. The sheer serenity of it all seemed to bleed into Lapis, spreading a general feeling of felicity through her from the inside-out.

“How’d you get in with them?” Lapis asked suddenly, surprising herself and Peridot with the sudden inquiry. She glanced at her friend through the corner of her gaze, trying to read for any sign of acknowledgment. “Your foster family.”

Luckily Peridot was already working her jaw for a response. “ _Ehh._ Greg-- _uh_ , Steven’s father-- apparently knew my welfare representatives, who were his. . great. . uncle and aunt? I had just been. . . _removed_ from my previous establishment.”

Lapis’ brow fell, consternation taking over her facial features. That didn’t sound like a very pleasant turnout. Peridot must have sensed her discomposure because Lapis heard a sigh and the shifting of a body as Peridot started back up. “Of course I haven’t always lived with Steven and the rest of them,” the blonde spoke in a fragile voice, eyes fixed firmly to the sky overhead. “I used to live with an old foster parent-- just one, singular. I’m glad to just be out of _that_ messy dynamic.”

The soft way in which Peridot spoke that last bit made something in Lapis’ chest wriggle with discomfort as she twisted her neck to gaze at the side of Peridot’s upside-down face. “What do you mean? How’d you get. . you said _removed?”_

Peridot hummed curtly. “I might have. . . insulted my former foster mother directly to her face.”

A bark of surprised laughter escaped Lapis before she could swallow it, quickly raising a hand to brush the back of it against her mouth. She didn’t think Peridot had it in her! “What did you _say?_ ” She requested, a dry, mirthful smile on her freckled face.

Peridot’s face sallowed as she shuddered, likely remembering the confrontation. “I called her a _clod_ because she was being an unreasonable. . . **_clod_ ** . She wouldn’t even listen! She was like this. . this. .” Her hands flew up to the star-studded sky, helplessly tangling with something invisible, like she was trying to appropriately present her former caretaker. “This _tyrant_. A totalitarian, y’know? She only wanted what was good for her, not for _me_ or for _anyone_ who worked for her.” She hugged her arms close to her chest then, the faraway glint in her eyes deepening as she took her eyes off the stars, focusing them on Lapis instead. “I don’t regret calling her a clod. It was pretty gratifying, actually.”

“I bet it was,” Lapis snorted, rolling onto her back and cushioning the back of her head with an open palm. She supposed she should be thankful that her mother wasn’t an undesirable character. She might be detached and mostly uninvolved with Lapis’ life, but she was there and didn’t try to take the reins when it wasn’t wanted. Besides, she’d had to deal with someone else who had given her more trouble than she had been worth. So it balanced out.

“I used to have someone. . . bad in my life, too,” Lapis whispered in a voice too brittle and too coarse for the tenderness of their midnight chat. She could see Peridot looking at her curiously through the sides of her eyes, a brow sharply poised in questioning. Lapis inhaled deeply, wondering if it was worth it to dig out and expose these scarred wounds. “She’s gone now, but, we had _something_. It wasn’t good, she-- _we_ weren’t good to each other.” Her free hand found her wrist, fingers cuffing it so delicately, as if it were about to break into a thousand glass shards.

“I was. . _just._ .  angry at the world. Angry at myself, angry at her, and wanted to be angry about everything else. When we split I realized how terrible it all was and. . tried my best to walk it out.” A humorless smirk blighted her face. “I’m not so sure it worked.”

Quiet built between them, swollen with an unspoken empathy that both seemed to comprehend. Lapis’ arms twitched weakly when she felt a soft set of fingers gently grazing her bicep, and she looked over at Peridot, who had rolled onto her stomach and was grabbing at her arm supportively. Her hand was so warm.

“Looks like we’ve _both_ had some cloddy stuff going on behind the scenes,” Peridot smiled weakly before looking at the treehouse around them. “I guess that’s why I like this place. It doesn’t _need_ to conform to the world around it and make us feel like we’ve got to. . pretend that everything’s okay. It’s natural. That’s the way pain’s supposed to be. The way. . _we’re_ supposed. .  to be. It sets us free, in a way.” She paused. “I think that made sense.”

Lapis regarded Peridot with a deep, prudent visage. Her words had sank down into her skin, forcing a hidden pressure that made her feel as though she were encased in water. But it wasn’t the crisp and agile current that she was used to. It was warm and slow and flowering, like the glow of a golden sun on her skin. It was unfamiliar, and it sort of frightened her-- but not as much as it made her feel. . . _validated._

And funnily enough, the affectionate feeling felt as if it were flooding out from beneath Peridot’s kindly hand.

Lapis felt something hitch when she noticed that her eyes had moved from Peridot’s small hand to her face, and more surprisingly, her quirked lips that were still upturned into a mindful smile. She coloured, thankful for the darkness that would hide the red in her cheeks as she dug her elbows into the wood and leaned up and off her back. She grimaced when she felt something in the small of her back wince with fire.

“I think I’ve got a splinter,” she inertly noted. “Tank top must have ridden up when I laid down.”

“Oh?” The mawkish look on Peridot’s face was quickly swapped out with concern as she sat up, watching Lapis as the girl tried to find the affliction by tracing her fingers untowardly around the agitated spot, but to no avail.

“Want me to help?”

Lapis’ eyes snapped up to Peridot, hand frozen beneath the hem of her shirt as she gently let it slide to her lap. “Uh, sure.” She twisted around and positioned herself so that Peridot could get a better vantage point on how to go about removing the annoying thing.

Unbeknownst to Lapis, Peridot’s face was dark with red as she fiddled around behind her back. “ _Err-_ \- I’ve gotta-- y’know-- _uhh_ \--” Lapis felt fingers flick incompetently against the bottom of her shirt. Lapis startled, feeling the tips of Peridot’s dainty fingers ghost along the bottom of her spine. _Oof_ , she shuddered, but nonetheless understood what Peridot was stammering a request for. “Y-Yeah, yeah-- just, I’ll lift it up.”

She hitched onto the hem from the front and gently let it slide up. The tickling of the light breeze on her back suddenly felt much more prominent, especially when it was blocked by the mass of Peridot’s hand as she tried to dislodge the tiny chip of wood.

“Got it!” Lapis heard Peridot whisper, the sensation of the tips of her nails digging into her back making fire crawl up the length of Lapis’ spine as she tried her very best not to tremble. Peridot scooted back, clicking her nails scornfully as she flicked the nettlesome little splinter off into the darkness. “There! Good as gone.”

“Thanks,” Lapis murmured, a hand moving to cover the tender spot. Why had she reacted so oddly, she wondered? Her back still felt as if it had been set aflame, flushed with a weird, sensitive electricity that made even her own touch feel alien.

The air was deadened between them, the natural tune of the forest muted beneath the blood that roared in Lapis’ ears.

“We’d better, uh-- leave for home soon,” Peridot was the first to stutter, glancing out into the dark woods. “It’s already gonna be dark for the walk back.”

“Yeah,” Lapis breathed, willing her heart to be stiller. “Yeah, okay.”

She allowed Peridot to climb down first after packing her novels back into her bag, sliding down after and dropping onto the quiet forest floor with a light thud. They were just beginning to march away from the site when Peridot stopped and looked up to Lapis. “We should name it.”

Lapis halted a step in front of her, brows high with questioning but eyelids low with weariness. “What?”

“I feel like it’s a little inappropriate keeping calling it something as boring as the _treehouse_ ,” Peridot rued. “There’s got to be a more. . . _cool_ thing to call it.”

“What’s wrong with calling it a treehouse?”

“Everything.”

Lapis hummed wanly, stuffing her hands into her pockets as she started down the slope to the creek. “How about. . . the barn?”

Peridot frowned. “Why a barn?”

Lapis was quiet a moment. “I dunno. We could. . . get some paint-- I think we might have some red paint in our shed,-- and make it look like one.” She smirked and looked back at their treehouse. “I think it’d be funny to anyone who comes in and sees some tiny barn-looking thing out in the middle of nowhere.”

Peridot’s eyes squinted mirthfully as she stole one last look at their treehouse, regarding it for a second before nodding with proud affirmation. “The barn it is."

 

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't mind me throwing some art I really wanted to make of that moment in the treehouse there at the end, fdsfs, it turned out really cute. Coming Tuesday: it's Lapis' birthday and the discovery of something odd in the woods!


	4. Chapter 4

A gentle hand gliding over her bare shoulder startled Lapis awake, ripping her out of an indistinct but comfortable dream. Her eyes only screwed tighter shut, though, mumbling something indistinguishable to even her as she pressed her face deeper into the pillow. Through sleep-muddled eardrums she could hear a slighted sigh and the shift of a larger weight on the edge of her mattress.

Letting her torpid curiosity earn the better of her, Lapis hesitantly poked an eye open, offering a discontent grunt when bleached morning light filtered in through her opened blinds. She looked towards her mother, a brow perched with questioning. The expression softened when she spotted a small box presented in her mother’s hands, and a card being coaxed into Lapis’ still hands.

“Happy birthday, Lapis,” her mother smiled wanly. “You didn’t think I’d forgotten, had I?”

Oh. Lapis’ face contorted as she recalled the fact that it was her birthday. “No,” she slurred, rolling off of her stomach and perching up on her elbow as she took the card into delicate fingers. “I kinda forgot about it myself.”

She didn’t see her mother chuckle breathily but she could hear it as she cracked open the card, reading its contents and sitting up. Her brown eyes lit up when she spotted a creased twenty-dollar bill tucked into a small slat. Her mother moved to hand the small box over to Lapis next, which she took in easygoing grace, mindfully tucking the card beneath her pillow.

“What is it?” Lapis asked, giving the box an experimental shake and raising a brow when she heard two muffled thumps from inside. She took off the lid as her mother gave a simple shrug. Inside, behind clumps of brown tissue paper, was a new pair of casual sneakers, stone-blue with white laces and a taupe outer sole. “I saw how worn-down your shoes were last month,” her mother piped, “so I’ve been saving to get you a new pair.”

Wry mirth pooled within Lapis as she took out one of the clean shoes. “Thanks, mom,” she mused, not quite knowing how to tell her mother that the likeliness of her wearing them outside of school was next to none. “I’ll wear them today.”

Her mother ghosted out of the room with a smile and a good-bye, pointing out how there was breakfast waiting downstairs as she had to leave for work. Lapis distractedly waved her out as she swung her legs around the bed and clambered up. Her first instinct was to squint through her blinds at Peridot’s house, but spotted no one. With a sigh she slid her blinds shut, wondering how in all that’s holy she managed to get up earlier than seven to swim every morning before.

She stopped and stared at the closed blinds at the thought. It hadn’t even been that long ago. Why did it feel like an eternity since she’d gone down to the cove? It must have been about a month at minimum since she’d been there.

Lapis willed the thought from her mind. She had to get dressed and see what her mom had put out downstairs, not dwell on these. . . changes. She pulled on a pair of wash denim shorts (just _barely_ long enough to pass dress code) and a striped t-shirt, pausing by her door when she realized she was still barefoot. She cast a rueful glance at the shoes her mother had bought, moved it down to her naked feet, and quickly made a turnaround to throw on some socks and slip the new shoes over them. Just until school was over with.

Apparently, she had been in her mother’s best graces this morning because laying on the kitchen counter was a plate stacked with a few slices of French toast and strawberries.

Funny how one day out of the whole year, people tried to make an effort for you just because you’d been successfully born.

 _Okay, now I’m beginning to sound like Peridot,_ Lapis sardonically thought to herself, nose scrunching as she picked up the plate and went to drop down on the couch to nibble at the breakfast platter, letting her own thoughts carry her off as she bit through the spread.

She thought about the woods and about how Peridot had insisted they begin placing up meep morp _memorabilia_ (Peridot had to explain very carefully what that meant, exactly) to celebrate the barn and the experiences they were creating within it. A weary smile tugged unconsciously at Lapis’ lips at the thought. It was kinda cute; Peridot had managed to stack a bunch of tin cans on top of one another and call it a day, proclaiming how it somehow symbolized a rocky beginning and lack of interpersonal communication between them, but despiting their turbulent start. . . things kind of pieced together and ended up balanced in the end.

“I think I’m beginning to think like her too,” Lapis declared to the empty room, staring down at the remains of her half-eaten plate. She decided she didn’t have the will to stomach the rest, not when a sudden curse of wayward nausea had just ruined her appetite. She had the right to believe it was caused by the self-derived contention her mind had conjured up when left to its own devices.

She left her plate in the sink and left it to soak, heading to the front door to grab her back and hike it out to the bus stop. She made it all the way to the top before she heard the telling sound of a door clattering shut down the hill. Lapis cast a glance over her shoulder to see Peridot making her way towards her, a hand risen to cheerfully wave, a sentiment that Lapis shallowly mirrored.

“Hi!” Peridot chirped, finishing her jog up the hill and stalling any further conversation as her hands glued to her knees as she tried regained her breath. She noticed something, though, Lapis could tell by the way her shoulders sat straighter. “I like your new shoes! Too bad you’ll never wear them outside of a school establishment.”

“Thanks,” Lapis laughed, pivoting her feet to give them both a better look at the new tennis shoes. “My mom gave me them to me for my birthday before I left this morning.”

Peridot looked thoughtful for a heartbeat, looking like she was ready to pose a question before her face drained of all pigment. Lapis tilted her head questioningly as Peridot rushed to drop her bag and began to high-tail it back towards her house. . . Was she screaming?

“ _I’llberightbackdon’tletthebusleavewithoutmeIforgotsomethingreallyreallyimportant,berightback!_ ” was the only intelligible mish-mash of words that Lapis could consider English, and even calling it that might have been a stretch. “Okay,” she called back, convinced that Peridot didn’t hear her as she stumbled through the line of bushes diving her yard from the gravel road and fled into her house just in time for the sound of tires crunching the asphalt to reach Lapis’ ears.

“Oh no,” she muttered to herself, twisting around to see the bus heading down the byway, its alert lights flashing as the indication that it was due for a stop in the next hundred yards. Lapis swung her head back in the direction of Peridot’s house, silently urging Peridot to hurry up, lest she wanted to be left here and need to find another ride to school. She doubted that Mr. DeMayo would be willing to wait more than fifteen seconds at one stop, especially if there were only two students boarding.

Lapis bounced on her heels as the bus cruised to a stop in front of her, its doors swinging open with a mechanical hiss and revealing a very defeated-looking Andy DeMayo. Lapis only stared, fingers clenching tighter against the strap of her book bag, unsure of whether or not she would wait or climb on.

“What’s takin’ ya so long?” Mr. DeMayo blurted after a few seconds of terse silence, motioning to Lapis expectantly. “Get on, we ain’t got much time before I’m s’pposed to be that the next stop, y’know.”

“Uhh-- Peridot will be right back, she--”

Mr. DeMayo was unyielding as he interrupted her. “She knows the rules. Either you’re at the stop and ready or else you gotta make it to school your own way. Now get on, unless you wanna walk into town, too, missy.”

Lapis anxiously bit the inside of her cheek, taking a fleeting look back at Peridot’s house. There was no sign of her yet. Chagrin ballooned within her as she took a hesitant step towards the bus doors, then another, and another until she was jumping up the stairs and boarding. _Sorry, Peridot_ , she deplored to herself, making her way down the aisles to her seat. Pearl or Garnet would be able to take her, right? Or Amethyst? Could any of them even drive?

“I see her, Mr. DeMayo!” One of the eighth graders (Smoky, right?) suddenly exclaimed, gesturing to the bottom of the hill where Peridot was sprinting with all her short-legged might up the incline, a thin box held in her arms. “C’mon, girl!”

The balloon of discomfort swelling in Lapis’ chest quickly began to deflate, flushed out by relief as she dropped down into her seat. She watched Peridot throw her back over her shoulder and stumble up the bus steps, wheezing an apology to the irate bus driver as he started the bus back down the road.

Peridot collapsed down next to Lapis with an eccentric mix between a wheeze and a sigh, sinking into her spot with a high-pitched groan. “ _Stars,_ ” she huffed at herself. “I can’t believe I forgot it!”

“I can’t, either,” Lapis related with a lazy smirk. “Peridot, forgetting something? Unheard of. What was so important you had to run back to your house to get?”

“ _This,_ ” Peridot heaved, straightening up and holding the box up for Lapis to take. Lapis blinked at the rectangular object, nose wrinkling with amusement as she took in the white alien wrapping paper. She took it from Peridot, running her fingers along the decorative wrap with a smirk. “Nice gift wrap,” she sarcastically mused, her smirk only deepening when Peridot glowed from what she thought had been a genuine compliment. “I know. Go on, open it! I wanna see your face!”

“You can already see it, though."

“You know what I mean!”

“Yep,” Lapis intoned flatly, taking a corner of the wrapper and tearing it back to reveal a hard, black plastic surface beneath. Her interests piqued, she continued to unwrap the paper, eyes growing progressively wider as she took in a colourful illustration reaching up its front. She glanced up at Peridot, who was prompting her to continue with flailing hands, before tearing the box free from its wrapping and taking in the gift with large eyes.

“It’s an art kit,” she determined, fingers fumbling to unclasp the small metallic latch at the end to expose its contents. Inside, a line of numerous watercolour paint capsules sat in a neat line on the bottom half of the kit. A rack of five brushes of varying threads and sizes sat pillowed into the top half, as well as a small clean area to mix and wash away colours. Lapis felt her heart swell.

“I, uh-- I remembered that you said you used to paint! With watercolours!” Peridot was bumbling beside her, fingers knotting nervously eagerly together. “So I-- got you _this!_ For your birthday.”

Lapis, rendered speechless by the thoughtful gift, gently stroked her fingers over a thin black brush. “This must have cost a fortune,” she noted quietly, turning to Peridot with glistening eyes. “You didn’t have to get me this, Peridot. I don’t even paint anymore.”

“Doesn’t mean you can’t pick it back up again sometime,” Peridot returned with a fidgety smile. “. . Do you-- _uhm,_ do you like it? If not I can take it back, or fi--”

“ _No_ , I--!” Lapis cut Peridot off before she could drivel any further, clipping the case shut with an untypical tenderness. “I love it, Peridot. I do,” she uttered in consolation, caressing the edge of the kit with her thumb. She wasn’t sure if she missed painting. The thought of picking it back up was a little daunting, even upsetting; what if she wasn’t good at it anymore? She’d been mediocre at best before, and after so many years of negligence, she couldn’t imagine she had gotten any better.

The murky thoughts clouding her gaze must have become noticeable to Peridot, as Lapis felt a hand rest carefully over her forearm. Looking up revealed a concerned-looking Peridot, green eyes a-glisten with skepticism. She was still worried that Lapis didn’t like it.

Before Lapis could stop herself, she found herself twisting at the torso, arms flying out to wrap around Peridot’s shoulders and draw her into a grateful embrace. She heard a sharp intake of breath right next to her ear. Her own breath was caught somewhere at the top of her lungs, unable to escape; Lapis was afraid that if she let herself breathe it would quiver as violently as her heart was thrumming in her chest.

Just as she felt hands ghosting against her shoulder, as if to return the embrace, Lapis pulled back, a hand reaching up to toss her fringe out of her eyes-- but also to press the underside of her arms against her cheeks to deter the blood she could feel rushing into them.

They just _hugged._ She shouldn’t be blushing over a hug, right? That was ridiculous.

They spent the rest of the morning bus ride talking about what they could do for their lunch period, and ended up going together to the mess hall’s snack bar and snagging a few fudge snacks with the crumpled dollars Peridot had brought along for this specific occasion. Lapis should’ve expected Peridot to be so charitable today, but it still shocked her to see anyone being so considerate for her.

 _It’s nice_ , Lapis had ruminated to herself as she unwrapped her third chocolatey treat, watching Peridot try to spear open a small pack of marshmallow snacks with her teeth.

The bus ride home consisted of Peridot talking about how they could spend the evening trying out Lapis’ new watercolour kit. She said she’d offer a few unused papers from her log journal for the first experimental tries, priding herself on the generous offer when Lapis coolly accepted. All the more to spare the poor pieces of paper from being stabbed to death by Peridot’s over-sharpened pencils.

Lapis was flipping through the last pages of the assigned reading she had for the night when the bus pulled off the highway and down their rural country road. They passed through the brief grove of deep-leaved beeches and out into the open field, racing along the barbed fences until they rounded the bend and could make out the brief turn-off where their houses were.

Lapis squinted, seeing a throng of people waiting at their drop-off. “Uhh, Peridot?”

“ _Yes?_ ” Peridot hummed, glancing up at Lapis from her GameBoy and following her index finger as she peered up and over the seats and let out a guttural string of curses when she saw what was up ahead. Or rather, _who._ “Oh no.”

“Oh no, what?” Lapis resounded, squinting ahead as the bus began to flash its indicators and the stop sign automatically panned out as it roared to a stop. She saw at least four people-- two tall, two short, and--

Oh. _Oh no_ was right.

With a tense jaw, Lapis moved off of the seat after Peridot and followed her down the aisle and out of the bus.

“Happy birthday, Lapis!” Steven cheered as she exited the bus, lurching forward like he was going to hug her, but thought better of it instead, choosing to boast an elegant navy-blue cupcake he had in his hands. It had deep cyan frosting and small white grains of candied sugar sprinkled over its swirled top.“Pearl helped me make this for you with this special blue cake mix!”

“Steven, I told you I used food colouring to make it blue.”

“ _But_ now it’s special because it’s for Lapis!” Steven sang back, completely unphased by Pearl’s matter-of-factness. “Here! I wanted to make it for you when I heard your birthday was today!”

“We have balloons,” Garnet proclaimed levelly, bringing her hands out from behind her back and boasting the two blue balloons she’d been hiding (how had she been hiding them?), both of them scrawled over in shimmering white text that read, _Congrats, you’re older now!_

Lapis turned over to Peridot, a flyaway strand of hair whisking down to conceal her ambiguous reaction from the others. “You told them?” She asked quietly, a hand sheepishly rubbing the thick hair at the back of her head as she turned her back further to Peridot’s family. She appreciated the notion but it was a little. . .  _much._

“W-Well-- _yes,_ ” Peridot warbled nervously. “I kind of had to. I told Garnet who pitched in to help buy the watercolours for you-- and I. . guess it must’ve slipped out a few. . other times to the others in the house. Secrets are pretty hard to keep _secret_ under that roof. I didn’t know they were going to do this-- _honest!”_

“Is something wrong, Lapis?” Steven’s voice intercepted the parley between the girls, who both turned to him with high brows and wide eyes. His big, dark eyes were losing their ecstatic sparks by the second, for the first time taking in the fact that it might be a little over-the-top. Lapis couldn’t take it-- not with that _face._

“No, it’s all okay,” she offered in solace, kneeling down to his height and taking the baked treat from the boy with careful fingers and a heartfelt smile. “Thank you, Steven. It’s cute.”

Pearl scoffed. “A- _hem_.”

“And Pearl.”

“And now we must be off!” Peridot clapped her hands willfully together, coming up beside Lapis and giving the cupcake a quick examination. She gave a curt laugh and gave Steven’s shoulder a favourable pat. “Good work, Steven!”

“A- ** _hem!_ ** ”

“ _Aaand_ ** _Pearl._** Anyways! We’ll be off now, _sooooo_ , **bye!** ” Peridot grabbed onto Lapis’ free hand, towing her along and away from the doting family, only to be stopped by Garnet’s dissenting hum. “Wait a moment, Peridot. Lapis needs to take her balloons.”

“What?”

“The balloons that you were _gonna_ give her but forgot this morning,” Amethyst drawled, a sly leer in her eyes as she gestured knowingly at Garnet. “The ones you _literally_ had a scream-off with a middle-aged woman at the store for.”

“And _won_ ,” Pearl added on with a grumble, putting a hand to her ear like she could still hear the piercing caterwauling.

Lapis glanced down at Peridot through the corners of her eyes, lips twitching, conflicted on whether to sink into an uneasy frown or an amused smile. Even funnier was the fact that Peridot was hiding her face in her hands; the tips of her ears peeking through her yellow hair were rosy red. Lapis snorted and approached Garnet, accepting the two balloons with a timid grace. “Thanks.”

Garnet have her a silent thumbs-up in response, which Lapis regarded for a moment, before raising the woman one better and sending one of her own. The edge of Garnet’s lips perked. “Run off now. I know you two have got some _very_ important things to do in those woods.”

They didn’t wait for a second order to take off, Lapis laughing dismissively through bites of Steven’s cupcake as Peridot tried to sputter out apologies for her foster family’s antics when she quickly stopped by the back of her house to ditch her shoes.

Lapis arrived first to the swinging rope, drawing it up the slope and perching on the edge of the mossy log, looking down at the creek whispering below. It was running a little fast, but it was fine so long as she kept her feet up. Once the both of them were safely on the other side, making way through the trees to the barn, Peridot began to thumb through her journal, struggling to find any empty pages to shed. “I don’t even _draw_ this much.”

Lapis kinked her brows a notch higher, giving a shrug. “Maybe I could paint on leaves. Find some really pale ones, or something.”

“I find it unlikely that the paint would stick to the leaf’s exterior. Unless it was dehydrated.”

Lapis snort-laughed. “ _Thank you,_ Bill Nye.”

Luckily there were three or four empty pages that Peridot had found and was willing to tear out, taking great care to not end up ripping the pages in half when she cleaved them. The barn was a welcomed sight, meaning that they were that much closer to re-opening the watercolour case and giving the whole paint thing another try.

Lapis was more keen than she had any right to be.

They clambered up, but not before Lapis tied the balloons she'd been gifted onto a thin bough near the bottom of the tree. Lapis dropped to her knees once in the barn and zipped open her bag and reveal the boxxed kit, a softly enthusiastic smile playing on her face. “We still have some water left over, right?”

“Yep!” Peridot went to go rooting for plastic water bottles through their organized chaos of a space. “Let me just find them.”

Lapis leaned back against the wall, legs drawn up into an elegant bend as she rested a fresh piece of canvas paper over her knees. The end of a thin brush tapped gingerly on the tapered edge of her chin. What could she draw? A quick glance around garnered a few options. There were the cordial branches crossing overhead, or that big patch of moss on the tree trunk studded with golden blooms, or just the towering, disorderly wall of things they’d found in the woods and at home with no purpose other than to sit in the barn and be made a meep morp of. Her personal favourite was the old, mangled car door that Peridot had found and tried to drag up to the treehouse all by herself.

Her eyes moved past Peridot, who was shuffling through more of their belongings with the beginnings of a frown. There was Peridot’s tin can morp? Some still had their colourful labels, despite being worn by age and other degrading elements. But it could be good practice. . .

“Hey, I think I’m going to paint your tin cans,” Lapis spoke up, tilting her head when Peridot didn’t look over. She was still going through their things, a stressed look on her face. “What is it?”

Peridot startled up, the same troubled visage darkening her features. “Uhm, what would you say if I said, err-- _theoretically_ . . what if we _didn’t_ have any more water in the barn?”

“We don’t have any more water bottles?” Lapis asked, which caused Peridot to do a quick double-check but to no avail. “ _Nyaghh_ , I _swear_ we brought some in last week!” She huffed, stomping her foot crossly on the floor of the barn and letting out a petulant sigh. “ _Hmmph_. I guess we ought to head down to the creek then, and get some of its water for this endeavor.”

“It’s not a big deal,” Lapis shrugged nonchalantly and placed the case down, tucking it safely into a leafy nook where no raccoon could break it open. She didn’t trust their grubby little hand-paws. “It’s fine. I kinda wanted to go walk around, anyways-- here.” She curled up onto her feet, grabbing for an empty plastic bottle and tossing it Peridot’s way. “We can use this to get the water.”

Peridot fumbled to catch the object, bouncing it off of her palms not once, not twice, but three times before managing to seize it with a triumphant _a-hah!_ “Good find, Lapis!” She readily crowed as she took a step towards the entrance to the barn, grabbing hold of the tough creeper and beginning to shimmy her way down to earth. “Let’s go!”

A minute later and the both of them were wading through the undergrowth, Peridot’s boots braying the leaf mold with quick, methodical stomps while Lapis’ bare feet followed, almost soundless on the forest floor. They spent most of the walk in companionable silence, Peridot piping up once or twice to point out one oddity or another, or stop to admire a particularly winsome wildflower, often drawing Lapis in with her to marvel.

Soon the bustling murmur of the creek could be heard through the trees, encouraging them both to pace a bit faster as they stepped carefully down the decline and stopping at the edge of the water. Lapis was the one to retrieve the bottle and dip it beneath the rippling surface, waiting until it was at its fullest capacity to bring it back up.

“This should be enough for a wash cup and for keeping the paint wet enough,” she determined, screwing on the bottle’s plastic cap with an absentminded grunt. “Do you wanna head back already?”

Peridot’s lips curled into a contemplative grimace as her arms stretched contentedly over her fluffy hair. “I don’t know-- it’s really nice out here right now! Besides, maybe we can find something else for you to paint! I’m not too sure how I feel about you putting my meep morp onto canvas and making it a--” she shuddered forebodingly, “ _performance piece._ ”

Lapis snorted. “I doubt anything about it would make it a performance piece but, whatever,” she admitted drily, standing back up and gazing down at the gurgling creek. “It’s moving a little fast today, isn’t it?”

“Oh?” Peridot took her gaze down to the waters, lips pursing with scrutiny. “I do think I heard Garnet talking about it raining in the county above us yesterday. It’s probably all the auxiliary run-off at the mouth of this creek.”

“Huh,” Lapis hummed plainly. “I guess so.” She turned back towards the treeline, grasping for foodholds so the journey back up the slope would be less perilous than the journey down. “C’mon, let’s go find something new to paint, then.”

Feathery ferns swished as two pairs of legs plowed through them, the shivering fronds guiding them along the moss-veiled trail through the woods. Peridot was the one mindful enough to keep tabs on where they were headed so they didn’t end up dallying in circles, or worse, get lost.

“I’ve never been this deep into the woods before,” Lapis admitted when they arrived at a small sandstone cleft riddled over with vines and crags, taking in the hoary larch glade around them. “I never really went past the barn.”

“That makes two of us,” Peridot grunted as she cautiously lowered herself down the steep, rocky drop, legs first. “Do you see anything _riveting_ that catches your eye? Because I’ve seen approximately twenty-three things that I think would look phenomenal etched on paper.”

Lapis sent Peridot an odd look. “You’ve kept count?”

“Of course I have! What sort of scout would I be if I wasn’t keeping track of everything that’s naturally esthetic?”

“A normal one,” Lapis snickered playfully, taking the leap and dropping down into the sandy hollow, disregarding Peridot’s indignant huff as the blonde shuffled to her side. “Well, _one_ of us has to. Incase we need to backtrack.”

“We’ve been on the same path for a while,” Lapis pointed out. “I’m sure if we get lost we can just use it to get back to the creek. It begins there.”

“Still,” Peridot recited, dogged as ever. “I just think that we should--” Her lips clinching shut faster than Lapis had ever seen. It didn’t seem right. Lapis leaned down slightly, brows knit with consternation as she took in Peridot’s pale face. “Peridot, what’s wrong?”

“ _Shh-shh-shhh!_ ” A clammy hand cuffed Lapis’ mouth, resigning her to silence as the two of them listened to the sounds of the forest. A woodpigeon crooned somewhere in the trees, its lilting call carrying above the more common sounds of trees settling and leaves stirring. Lapis felt her features sink with confusion as she pried Peridot’s hand from her lips. “I don’t hear--” As soon as the words fell from her mouth the chaotic racket of leaves being tossed by rapid-moving feet filled the air, rendering Lapis voiceless as she stood a little straighter.

“Did you hear that?!” Peridot whisper-shrieked, eyes immense behind her glasses. Lapis tersely nodded, tracking her gaze across the line of vegetation shielding _whatever_ that made that noise from them. Suddenly the noise started up again: leaves skittered, twigs snapped, and there was a  guttural sigh of breath from somewhere to their left. Both girls startled, jumping away from a clump of bracken that was shivering like something had just rushed through it.

“ _Oh stars--_ ” Peridot whispered, a fearful strain roughing her voice. “Is it too late to backtrack? Do we still have that option?”

There was another rustling sound, closer this time. “It’s getting _closer_ !” Peridot squeaked, scrambling over Lapis (who only went _“hey!”_ but didn’t try to deter her) to cloak herself behind her, hands grasping onto Lapis’ forearm like it was her only saving grace. “We don’t have anything to fight it with!”

“You didn’t bring anything in your bag that we could use?!” Lapis carped, dipping into a defensive crouch when the maddened rustling stopped, leaving only an off-putting silence that made their racing hearts pump even more ferociously. If it was some wild animal looking for trouble, Lapis figured that she could try to wrestle it-- she was willowy and had _somewhat_ of an athletic build, and she’d fought before. But it hadn’t been an animal, then.

Peridot stared with narrowed eyes out into the woods, obviously trying to pinpoint where the noises were emitting from. She looked up at Lapis and reached for the water bottle tucked into her hand. “Here, give me the water bottle!”

“What, why?!”

“Just trust me!”

Lapis threw the bottle at Peridot, cringing when Peridot didn’t catch it on the first try and had to scramble to catch it before it rolled away on the clearing floor. Peridot grabbed onto it, fingers clenching so deeply into the plastic that it began to crack inwards, sending all the pressure to the front of the bottle as Peridot pointed it threateningly into the foliage.

“If you don’t come out right now, I’ll--uh--  I’m _armed_ !” Peridot shrilled, swinging the bottle around like it was a weapon to be feared. Lapis shoved her face into her sweating palms. _This_ was their plan? “Peridot, I don’t think--”

“ ** _Hiyah!_ ** ” Peridot spun around when the erratic pawsteps picked up again, squeezing the bottle so tightly in her hands that the cap popped off and an arch of water was sent spurting out, dropping uselessly onto the ground directly in front of Peridot. “Oh, _come on!_ ”

Another frenzied skittering in the bushes next to Peridot sent the blonde pelting back to Lapis with a timorous yelp, the half-emptied water bottle falling from her hands and crashing to earth. _“I tried!”_

Lapis bit at her lip as Peridot ducked behind her, severe gaze finding a possible spot where the noise could be coming from: a loose crowd of leafy shrubs that were shuddering from the inside-out. “It’s right there,” Lapis indicated breathlessly. “We can sneak up on it. On three?”

“ _If that’s even a good idea,_ ” the blonde pressed up behind her whimpered, nevertheless moving with Lapis as the taller sophomore began to prowl towards the shrubbery. They paused directly in front of it, crouching low as to not be seen by the creature that was grunting and snuffling behind it. Lapis cajoled Peridot with a quick jerk of her head, counting down on her fingers before they leapt into the brush.

Lapis and Peridot broke through the foliate screen with respective war cries, Peridot tripping over her own two feet as Lapis slammed to a halt, staring with astonishment down at the creature that she thought had been hunting them.

 

Staring up at them, covered in soil, leaves, and scraps of disheveled moss, was a grinning, benign-looking, short-legged puppy.

 _A corgi?_ Lapis blinked and shared a bewildered look with Peridot. What was _this_ doing here? Peridot seemed to forego Lapis’ hesitance as she crouched down and extended a hand to the animal, experimentally giving it a pat on the bridge of its rounded muzzle. The corgi pup let out an good-natured yip, scrambling up from the pile of mulch it had been digging in and throwing itself at the blonde. Its tongue lolled giddily as it tried to cover her chin with slobber.

“Oh-- oh, _oh,_ _eww, haha--_ ** _s-stop_** **!** ” Peridot spluttered, falling backwards as her fuzzy assailant writhed happily around on her chest, stopping when it seemed to spot Lapis staring down at it with cautioned amusement. It stood up suddenly, fixing Lapis with a deep, intense gaze that made her stomach squirm uncomfortably. “ _Um-”_

She couldn’t even finish the whisper before the corgi launched itself off of Peridot and into open air. Lapis flew forward with arms outstretched, determined not to let this energetic dog smash back down to the earth. It hadn’t reached its full adult size yet (or, Lapis didn’t _think_ it did, she’d never actually seen a corgi in person before)-- but it was large enough to not be completely helpless on its own, she thought. Nonetheless it panted happily in her arms, head immediately nestling against the warm crook of her arm. Puzzled, Lapis turned back to Peridot. “You don’t have a dog, right? This isn’t yours?”

Peridot, who had been giggling to herself, rose up on her elbows, glasses askew. “No, we-- Steven has a cat named Lion but-- no dogs!” She scrambled up to her feet, dusting herself off and flying over to Lapis’ side, staring into the corgi’s beady eyes with wonder. “Where did she come from? It’s not everyday that you see a stray _corgi._ I don’t even believe she’s mixed: a purebred!”

Lapis stared down at the golden dog, brows stitched disconcertedly together. “Maybe someone left her out here,” she divulged, lips quirking up with enchantment when she felt a cool, damp nose press into the nook of her arm. Who would leave a sweet little puppy like this out here? She didn’t _seem_ to have anything wrong with her, and she’d been so happy to see them that the first thing she’d done is leap at Peridot. She didn’t really know all too much about dogs, but, little ones like this definitely weren’t meant for the woods.

Her heart made a resolve before her mind did as she turned to Peridot with the most serious of faces and said, “we’re gonna keep her.”

“We are?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, in _that_ case,” Peridot padded over, hands reaching out to gently enfold the corgi’s head in her hands, rubbing her small thumbs over its fuzzy ears. “. . Do you know how to take care of a dog? I’ve never had a pet-- well, there _is_ Lion, but he usually sticks around Steven above anyone else. He’s Steven’s responsibility.”

Lapis felt her smile falter. “No, I’ve never had a pet before either. Um. . . maybe. . . we could use the internet? The school has the new computer lab they installed over the summer, but I’ve never been in it.”

Peridot nodded. “The internet will definitely have all of the answers we might need. Let’s think immediate specifics! Or, well, actually, the _basics_ . Food, water, shelter. Recreation and other demands can all fall into play later.” The blonde bapped the puppy’s muzzle playfully, face splitting into a joyful grin when the dog gave an affable _woof_. Peridot’s eyes lit up with an idea and motioned for Lapis to hand the animal over, which she diffidently agreed to.

Peridot cleared her throat, supporting the benevolent dog in both arms as she looked up at Lapis with a cheeky expression. “Lapis Lazuli,” she grinned, taking a more considerate hold of the corgi as she extended her arms out, like she was bestowing the puppy to the taller girl like it was some renowned honorable thing. “Happy birthday. Here is my _second_ gift, to you.”

Lapis snorted and took the puppy into her own arms, giggling softly when it wriggled up and tried to pepper the underside of her jaw with licks. “ _Wow,_ thanks,” she chuckled, the edge of her lips curling into a smirk when Peridot gasped because she’d used _her_ token phrase of gratitude. She lowered her eyes back down to the corgi, who was snuggling with a low, pleased noise against Lapis’ chest. “ _Hmm_ ,” she murmured, a hand reaching up to stroke the dog’s floppy golden ear. “She needs a name.”

“Oh! Can we name her--” Peridot started strong but the determination seemed to deteriorate the further she blathered. “ _Oh!_ \-- I know, she can be--. . . _ehm. ._ **_uh_ ** _._.”

Lapis glanced down at the corgi’s back, noting how the fur was tinted amber near the scruff, fading into a sleek ombre the further the coat spread. It kind of reminded her of a. . .

“Pumpkin,” Lapis suggested with a smile, eyes widening when the puppy seemed to respond, perking up and staring at her over its chubby shoulder. “I think she likes it.”

“Pumpkin,” repeated Peridot, a finger tapping her chin with thoughtful consideration. “I like it, too! _Pumpkin’s_ got excellent taste.”

Lapis dealt a mock gasp, fingers curling around Pumpkin’s ears as if to shield them. “Don’t say pumpkins have excellent taste, it’ll hurt her feelings.” Her teeth snagged impudently at the flesh of her lower lip as she awaited Peridot’s response, trying to see past the mask of comprehension that Peridot was trying to make look genuine.

Lapis knew she was confused. She never was all too good at discerning sarcasm from actuality. Which only made it funnier when Peridot finally spoke up. “You know she’s not actually a pumpkin, right?”

“Oh my _god_ ,” Lapis snorted, hugging Pumpkin with a jittery snort-laugh before setting their pet (was it technically their pet now? They didn’t need paperwork to own a stray, right?) down to let her dawdle around. She jiggled over to Peridot, beady eyes bright with fascination as it began to nose Peridot’s left leg, teeth clicking curiously at the fabric of Peridot’s jeans. The blonde stiffened, gently lifting her leg away with an uneasy chuckle. “Okay-- _no,_ let’s not sniff that, okay? It’s not yours.”

“It’s just what dogs do, Peridot,” Lapis reasoned when a downtrodden Pumpkin waddled her way back to the blue-haired teenager. “They like to sniff stuff. I think.”

Peridot didn’t look comforted by the observation, instead resorting to sorting out the bottom of her jeans, tucking the cuffing deeper into the sides of her boots, uttering something Lapis couldn’t hear. A small chip of misgiving wedged into her heart upon seeing Peridot looking so. . . _vulnerable_? When Peridot looked up Lapis pointedly took her gaze away, not wanting to be caught staring, and instead focused her attention on the puppy panting contentedly between her ankles. Lapis was struck with an idea and bent over to pick Pumpkin up with a spirited smile.

“Peridot, I think I know who I can paint.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pumpkin's here now! The barn fam's all comin' together.
> 
> I gotta ask y'all to give me until next weekend to pump out the next chapter, I got a little caught up in homework and art things this weekend and didn't prepare them. Thanks for all the awesome feedback!


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